OK - here are my thoughts on InfoMagnet LM.
 
Forget about sending message with the "From: " line forged to make LISTSERV
think it came from the user.  Norm Aleks convinced me that this was a bad
idea.  It wouldn't work due to confirm and the "warm & fuzzy" messages
LISTSERV sends to users letting them know when an administrator has done
things on their behalf are good thing.  So: from a technical standpoint,
clearly the way to go about this is to send the administrator commands to
LISTSERV for this stuff.  Add the emotional reactions to the whole issue,
and I'd say it is time to kill the suggestion.
 
Now, some specific issues from the messages:
 
>While the market for a list owners product is not as large as one for
>list users, I think it could be quite attractive to organizations
>wanting to site license your product.
 
Exactly.  Tossing in a copy of "InfoMagnet LM" with a site license of
"InfoMagnet" provides something for everyone (users and admins)
 
>it's changing the list header that new listowners are intimidated by.
 
Certainly, I can make a GUI which facilitates creating, editing and mailing
of the list header.  Is this something people really need from a GUI, or are
most people quite happy doing this by hand? (see more comments later)
 
>Actually I can think of a few more things InfoMagnet should  do if it wants
>to be  a serious  help to the  list owner:  welcome, farewell, and  MAILTPL
>files   (and these   could   all be  integrated  in   a nice way),
 
Good ideas! :)
 
>archive
>maintenance (though this  varies by LISTSERV  platform and will change when
>L-Soft releases the  new archive server code
 
I'd prefer to stay away from that one.
 
>> >-- Managing error notices.  Some part of the program might gather up
>> >notices and report daily to the list-owner, and offer a menu for actions.
>> >A sub-routine might collect alleged "user unknown" addresses and after X
>> >days (X set by the list-owner) offer actions.  The list-owner would be
>> >alerted immediately if a first time error notice had been delayed for 7
>> >days or longer.
>>
>> Obviously a LISTSERV function, since LISTSERV already does a great deal of
>> this list owners.
>
>I'm proposing *management* of error notices.  Listserv doesn't manage
>them, it just sends them individually.  *I* manage them.  Would that I
>could buy some software to do that for me.  Maybe somebody will develop
>such software.
 
Last time I asked, people were _very_ antsy about any program which goes
snooping around a list admin's mailbox looking for error notices and taking
action.  Also, with the variety of email packages, I have no idea how I
would write something to read all the different formats.  finally, many list
managers use pine, mailx or some other unix mail system, so InfoMagnet would
have to work with them.   I don't know of any technical way to do this.
 
Since LISTSERV generates the error notices, it knows when they occur, and
sometimes takes action on them, it seemed to me that LISTSERV should handle
things.  I don't know of a way to get the error messages from LISTSERV to
the GUI.
 
Now: I could certainly write a cross-platform PERL program to read mail,
think about it, propose courses of action and then send out the admin
messages.  This wouldn't be integrated into the InfoMagnet GUI, though it
would likely be bundled with that package.  I know list admins who have
written programs to do this sort of thing, so I might be reinventing the
wheel.  I'm not adverse to it - but again - is there a demand?
 
Would people prefer a menu-driven perl-based InfoMagnet LM? That way they
could run it on their VM, VMS and Unix boxes at the command line...and
they'd have perl source to muck with.
 
>Another possibility for authentication of list owners would be PGP, but
>that, of course, would require enhancements to LISTSERV.
 
NO WAY!  PGP costs a bloody fortune in licensing fees!
 
John
 
John Buckman - [log in to unmask] - (301) 718-7840
Walter Shelby Group Ltd. - Internet Software Publishers
http://www.shelby.com/pub/shelby/ - ftp://ftp.shelby.com/pub/wsg