Small query on distribution lists

Giuliano Colla giuliano.colla at fastwebnet.it
Fri Jul 23 13:22:08 UTC 2010


Timothy Murphy ha scritto:
> Timothy Murphy wrote:
> 
>> I've recently set up a couple of distribution lists
>> using KMail/KAddressBook.
>> This works quite well;
>> but I wondered if there is any way
>> of making the To line give the name of the list
>> rather than the people on the list,
>> as for example Mailman does?
> 
> I guess I mis-stated what Mailman does.
> I think it posts to each person on the list separately,
> with the name of the list added to the Subject line.
> 

Sorry, I'm not too much familiar with Mailman. I gave a look to 
documentation, and Mailman turns out to be a Mailing List Manager, i.e. 
something acting in conjunction with a mail server. It can receive mail 
and then send it to each member of a list, if instructed to do so.
KMail is a mail client, which is only capable of sending your e-mail to 
a mail server: one click, one mail sent, then it is up to the server to 
send a copy to each recipient in the To list. It's beyond the scope of a 
mail client to scan the To list and to create out of the original mail 
you typed, 100 e-mails, each one stripped of the other recepient 
addresses, and then perform 100 send instead of just one.

> So I suppose my query should be:
> Is it possible to set up a distribution list
> in KMail/KAddressBook
> so that mail is sent to each member separately?
> 

The answer is no and yes. No, you can't do it with KMail only.
Yes, you can do it, but via a list manager, like Mailman. You can create 
a Mailman list, have all your recipients subscribe to that list (or 
maybe you can subscribe them yourself, as list Administrator), and then 
you may send your mail using Kmail, to the appropriate Mailman List. In 
that case the list will be handled by Mailman.
The same thing happens now here: you just sent a message to 
kde at list.fedoraproject.org, using Knode, your To line had just the list 
name, and your message has been forwarded to all list members, me 
included, care of fedoraproject list Manager (which happens to be 
Mailman 2.1.9).

> I find it slightly off-putting if there is a mailing-list
> with say 100 members
> to have to go halfway down the page past the list of recipients.
> 
> 


-- 
Giuliano Colla

Whenever people agree with me, I always feel I must be wrong (O. Wilde)


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