Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!wsrcc.com!wolfgang
From: wolfgang@wsrcc.com (Wolfgang S. Rupprecht)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc
Subject: Re: Getting People off BITNET mail lists
Keywords: bitnet off
Message-ID: <1991Mar30.174134.15296@wsrcc.com>
Date: 30 Mar 91 17:41:34 GMT
References: <23911@well.sf.ca.us>
Distribution: na
Organization: Wolfgang S Rupprecht Computer Consulting, Washington DC.
Lines: 71

In article <23911@well.sf.ca.us> dhawk@well.sf.ca.us (David Hawkins) writes:
>We're having an occaisional problem with people who get accounts
>here, sign up for a lot of BITNET lists, and then leave (for one
>reason or another.)  Is there a way to block people from signing up
>on BITNET lists?

It seems that the real problem is that a mailing lists are really a
poor way to run news a system. You get the mail dumped into a mailbox
on a per user basis.  This means lots of duplication, extra delivery
cycles, and no automatic expiry.  Better would be to dump mailing list
mail it into /usr/spool/news and use the normal news software to deal
with it there.

This is exactly what I do here.  All mailing lists get forwarded to
inews via an alias in the sendmail alias file.  Users can then read
the mailing list via rn or nn.  If they don't read it for a few weeks,
it simply gets expired as all news does.  Overflowing mail boxes just
aren't a problem.

This does mean you still have to educate users to as you to set up a
new mailing list connection for them.

Oh yea, thanks to Rich $alz for the hints as to how to redirect mail
into inews.

-wolfgang

Here is the script I use with cnews.  No doubt the bnews stuff is similar.

#! /bin/sh
###############################################################################
##									     ##
##	File:     post							     ##
##	Author:   Wolfgang S. Rupprecht <wolfgang@wsrcc.com>		     ##
##	Created:  Wed Nov 28 18:22:19 EST 1990				     ##
##	Contents: mailing list reflector - put mail into newsgroups          ##
##									     ##
##	$Header$							     ##
###############################################################################

# Copyright (c) 1990 Wolfgang S. Rupprecht
# You may do anything with this file except change or remove this
# copyright notice.  Derived works must be clearly marked as such.

# put lines like this into your /etc/aliases (aka. /usr/lib/aliases) file.
# mazda-list: "|/usr/local/lib/post list.mazda mazda-list"
# weights-list: "|/usr/local/lib/post list.weights weights-list"
# set up the moderators list to mail followups back to the list itself

# inews has caniptions if this is wrong
. ${NEWSCONFIG-/usr/lib/news/bin/config}
export NEWSCTL NEWSBIN NEWSARTS NEWSPATH NEWSUMASK NEWSMASTER NEWSCONFIG


NEWSGROUP="${1-list.misc}"
MAILINGLIST=${2-""}
USER="news"
HOME="/usr/spool/news"
ORGANIZATION="Mailing list ${MAILINGLIST} to newsgroup $NEWSGROUP reflector."
HOSTNAME=YourHostNameHere
export ORGANIZATION USER HOME

( echo "Newsgroups: $NEWSGROUP"
    echo "Distribution: local"
    echo "Approved: $USER@$HOSTNAME"
    echo "Path: $USER"
    sed -e 's/^From /X-From: /'
) | /usr/lib/newsbin/inject/inews -h
-- 
Wolfgang Rupprecht    wolfgang@wsrcc.com (or) uunet!wsrcc!wolfgang
Snail Mail Address:   Box 6524, Alexandria, VA 22306-0524