> The company I work for recently purchased another company that is
> running Lyris ListManager 4.2 and I have been asked to convert their
> lists to our ListServ server running 14.5.

This kind of thing is almost never simple.  I usually recommend doing the
list creation part semi-manually -- categorize your existing lists into a
handful of basic types, create a few LISTSERV list templates based on
those types, and create the new LISTSERV lists based on those.  You aren't
going to be able to migrate the list configurations point-by-point,
because the features of ListManager and LISTSERV lists don't have a
one-to-one correspondence.

Once you've created the LISTSERV lists, you should be able to script the
migration of the subscribers and archives (if applicable).  I wrote a
couple of scripts last year to do this for ListManager 8.0; unfortunately,
I'm certain that they won't work for ListManager 4.2.  Basically, you'll
parse the subscribers from the old ListManager lists, and use a script to
turn them into LISTSERV bulk ADD commands (see section 7.17.1 of the
LISTSERV Site Manager's manual for the syntax for that).  Then export the
ListManager archives (if any), and turn them into LISTSERV notebook
format.  (See http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/1.8d/qs/editlogs.html#format
for the notebook log format.)

Keep in mind that if these are discussion lists (and you therefore don't
have control over the posting schedule), you'll also have to deal with
cutting over the host name and list addresses in an elegant fashion.
Depending on the inbound SMTP setup and how easily you can re-educate your
users, that may or may not be a big part of the migration plan.  On the
topic of re-education, you also need to consider the need for re-training
your list owners and/or site administrator(s).  The move cannot (and
should not) be transparent to them.

I'll also give the obligatory pitch for L-Soft's consulting services (of
which I am a part): http://www.lsoft.com/products/consulting.asp
We can help you with this sort of thing; contact your sales rep or
[log in to unmask] if you're interested.

-- 
Liam Kelly
Senior Consulting Analyst
L-Soft international
[log in to unmask]

-------------------------------------
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