Re: Migrating this list to PGLister on Friday, June 16th, 1300 UTC

Greetings, again!

As an FYI, I am beginning the migration of this list now. You may see
emails to this list be paused for a period of time, but none is expected
to be lost.

Thanks!

Stephen

* Stephen Frost (sfrost(at)snowman(dot)net) wrote:
> Greetings!
>
> The PostgreSQL Infrastructure team will be migrating the project's
> mailing lists from the existing system (an ancient and unmaintained
> piece of software called "majordomo2") to a newly developed mailing list
> system (known as "PGLister"), which better addresses the needs of the
> PostgreSQL community and is updated to work with recent improvements in
> email technology and spam filtering. These changes will impact certain
> aspects of the system but we are hopeful that these changes will have a
> minimal impact on users, although everyone will notice the differences.
>
> We are planning to migrate this list on Friday, June 16th 2017, at
> around 1300 UTC.
>
> The changes which we expect to be most significant to users can be found
> on the wiki here: https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/PGLister_Announce the
> current version of which is also included below.
>
> Note that the pgsql-hackers email list is used in examples below, but
> this change applies to all project mailing lists.
>
> No adjustment of Subject: lines any longer
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> * The "Subject:" header will no longer be changed to include the name
> of the list (for example, "[HACKERS]"). This change is to avoid
> breaking DKIM [1] (a standard for preventing nefarious changes in
> email between the sender and the receiver by calculating a hash of
> certain headers and the body). Not breaking DKIM signed messages will
> make it less likely that emails sent through our mailing lists will be
> classified as spam.
>
> * If you filter your email based on those "Subject:" header insertions,
> you will need to adjust your filtering rules. We recommend looking at
> the industry standard "List-ID:" header instead.
>
> New email addresses for the lists
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> * Existing email addresses will continue to work for a while
>
> * For example, this means that pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org will change
> to be pgsql-hackers@'''lists'''.postgresql.org.
>
> * Having a flat namespace that both lists and user accounts, as well as
> other addresses, live in has been a maintenance issue for the
> PostgreSQL Infrastructure team. It also prevents us from implementing
> DKIM [1] on messages from postgresql.org. Moving the lists to
> "lists.postgresql.org" reduces this burden, allows us to implement
> DKIM [1], and allows additional flexibility for handling other lists
> in the future.
>
> * The existing list email addresses will work for some time, but
> eventually must be retired for us to realize the maintenance burden
> reduction.
>
> Other email header changes
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> * The old majordomo2 system used both non-standard and industry standard
> headers to provide information about which list a given message came
> from.
>
> * PGLister will use standard, industry-recognized headers to identify
> mailing list messages. The non-standard header "X-Mailing-List" will
> no longer be included. Any users whose filters are based on this
> non-standard header will need to adjust their filters.
>
> * The value of the headers will also be changing, to match the change
> of list names. The header "List-ID" will be changed from, eg,
> "List-ID: <pgsql-hackers.postgresql.org>" to
> "List-ID: <pgsql-hackers.lists.postgresql.org>". Users who have
> filters defined to use this header will need to adjust their filters
> to account for this change.
>
> * Certain email providers should be able to take advantage of these
> headers automatically to provide things such as an "Unsubscribe"
> button, but we cannot guarantee this as it depends on their systems.
>
> Email footer removal
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> * The footer text inserted by the old majordomo2 system will no longer
> be included in each email (the footer is the text which starts with:
> "Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org)").
> Removing the footer is necessary to avoid breaking DKIM [1] signed
> messages as they pass through our system.
>
> Cross-posts not de-duped
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> * Emails cross-posted to multiple lists will no longer be de-duped, so
> if posted to two lists the message will be delivered twice. Both
> copies will have the same message-id (and can be locally de-duplicated
> on that), but different envelope sender and recipient addresses.
>
> Managing subscriptions and unsubscribing
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> * PGLister includes a web interface which is greatly improved from
> the old majordomo2 system. Users can log into the PGLister system
> using their regular community account [2].
>
> * The URL for users to manage their subscriptions in PGLister [3] is:
> https://lists.postgresql.org/manage
>
> * At this page, users can subscribe, unsubscribe, and adjust
> parameters associated with their mailing list subscriptions.
>
> * There is also an option at the above URL to have a test email
> sent from the mailing list system as if it were being sent from the
> list, to assist users with testing their filter settings.
>
> * List members who do not have a community account [2] may
> create an account and then, through the PGLister web interface,
> associate their email address(es) with their account.
>
> Digest capability offered by majordomo2 no longer supported
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> * This was discussed with a few of the users who use digest and
> determined to be acceptable.
>
> * Using digest emails also caused problems when a user replies to
> the digest email.
>
> * There are no plans to implement digest capabilities in PGLister
> in the future.
>
> Thank you!
>
> Stephen (on behalf of the pginfra team)
>
> [1]: DKIM - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DomainKeys_Identified_Mail
> [2]: Community Account - https://www.postgresql.org/account
> [3]: Manage subscriptions - https://lists.postgresql.org/manage