mailman "server configuration error"

[dcain]

Anyone know what's going on with Mailman? It's been up and working well for a while, is still forwarding list email, but I suddenly have the following situation:

Mailman lets me know daily (via email) that I have a post waiting to approve, but when I click on the emailed link:

http://[mydomainname].com/mailman/admindb/[mylistaddress]_[mydomainname].com

I get:

------------------------------
Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, webmaster@[mydomainname].com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.


Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Apache/1.3.27 Server at www.[mydomainname].com Port 80
------------------------------

[cjc2k]

im having the same problem ... and i need to send something out asap!

[dfervin]

Mailman has been very unstable lately.

You might want to review this post by Jim about the bug, apparently it's a CPanel problem.

Originally posted by Jim
It is something that we cannot fix. There is a ticket in at CPanel.net to get it repaired and has to do with the CPanel update. I highly suggest that no one use the script because it has never worked correctly and will always eventually break down for weeks or months at a time until CPanel fixes it. We are removing any reference on our site that it is even offered due to the fact that it constantly doesn't work.

The log file suggestion in the output page is also useless. The script is so broken it doesn't keep a log file since it broke.

You can review the entire thread by searching for "mailman not supported" ....You'll see complaints about mailman from various other board members.

David

[dcain]

Originally posted by dfervin
You can review the entire thread by searching for "mailman not supported" ....You'll see complaints about mailman from various other board members.
David

Searched with that query and didn't find much.

So what does the quote from Jim mean? That I was sold features that don't exist? That I as a user am having the rug pulled out from under me without being notified - PZ will just go ahead and yank Mailman? Or what?

[cjc2k]

yeah that sucks,
It was working fine for me up to yesterday.

[Sailmariner]

Well, yet again shafted! I have about 10 mailing lists scattered among 6 or 7 domains and I cannot manage any of them, while they continue to operate without me.

My e-mail to Jim goes unanswered.

Then I find this thread, which seems to say, the mail list program doesn't work and isn't going to work any more.

No one seems to offer the next piece of vital advice: What do we do about the existing mailing lists? What do we do about mailing lists, period?

[dcain]

Originally posted by Sailmariner
.../I have about 10 mailing lists scattered among 6 or 7 domains and I cannot manage any of them, while they continue to operate without me./...

Don't a bunch of hosts use CPanel? Don't a bunch of CPanel hosts use Mailman? If this is a "problem in cpanel", shouldn't there be a bunch of mailman users really upset about this right now? One would think there'd be a good bit of pressure to get this fixed...

D

[prince]

I don't use mailman but this discussion made me curious.

I used search on the cpanel.net forum and counted 80 Threads (discussions) on Mailman since the first of July.

I didn't take time to read them but the title of several indicate that other cpanel users are having trouble.

[bobchmara]

Originally posted by Sailmariner
No one seems to offer the next piece of vital advice: What do we do about the existing mailing lists? What do we do about mailing lists, period?

Bingo! Earlier today I sent in a help desk ticket and got a response that boils down to "It's not our problem". The response went on to say, use another mail list program such as Mojo.

Well, that's dandy. Even if I wanted to put in the effort to install Mojo, which apparently I'll be doing even though I don't want to, what about the existing mail lists running under the broken Mailman? I don't see a way to delete the exisitng Mailman lists. Do I need to now inform everyone using the current mail lists that the names have changed?

Sorry, I'm just venting.

Bob Chmara

[bobchmara]

Originally posted by bobchmara
I don't see a way to delete the exisitng Mailman lists.

Clearly I was being stupid! I'll just blame it on frustration.

Bob

[dcain]

OK, for more than a week I've been getting emails from mailman that inform me that I need to approve or delete a post on my list.

Of course, when I follow the link, I get the "server configuration error" page, which is just plain no help at all.

How is it that:

a. many people seem to be experiencing this trouble.

b. there is no action from Page-Zone or cPanel on a fix.

c. there is no "here's what to do now" forthcoming from Page-Zone.

What do we do now? Anyone? Does anyone from Page-Zone actually read their own support question forum?

D

I'm getting the same problem on the one mailing list I have. Unfortunately, this is a critical mailing list for discussions amongst the Board of Directors of a national organization.....

This is not an acceptable response. I can understand something like "We are persuing this problem with xxx".

But to offer it, then tell us MONTHS AFTER setting up mailing lists that it's not reliable is not good. Rather, at the first sign that it is "not reliable" they should be putting out a warning much earlier.

[dcain]

I'm gonna keep after this issue:

PAGE-ZONE! WHAT DO WE DO NOW?

WHAT IS THE STATE OF WORK ON MAILMAN?

D

[dykhouse]

Mailman at page-zone is dead. I too got the suggestion to use Mojo, which is indeed a full-featured program. However, out of the box it is not really a mailing list program but more of a newsletter program. What I mean by this is that it is very easy to set up a mailing list where someone can log into the web interface and send a message to all the people subscribed to the list. There is an extension/module included with it that allows you to email an alias that will forward to the list subscribers. However, this involves fooling with files, directories, etc. that either aren't accesible to those on shared servers or are way too complicated for even the more-than-literate-but-less-than-programmers like myself. I have not found any other programs at places like hotscripts.com that are free/cheap and easy enough to set up while offering the same/similar features to Mailman.

For the time being, I feel like I (we) am screwed when it comes to this. Perhaps someone from Page-Zone could let us know how to "forward an e-mail to a file/script" (as the Mojo documentation suggests) so we can use that script. I understand it isn't their job to maintain our sites, set up scripts, etc., but perhaps a little help on this could satisfy a whole lot of people who expect (and were paying for) a working mailing list program.

Chris

[dcain]

Originally posted by dykhouse
Mailman at page-zone is dead. I too got the suggestion to use Mojo, which is indeed a full-featured program. However, out of the box it is not really a mailing list program but more of a newsletter program.

Chris

No, not good enough, Page-Zone. I can understand that a web host might need to change configuration, but to my knowledge Page-Zone has presented no migration plan.

Further, Mailman was one of the features that sold me on web hosting here. If they want to pull the rug out like this, they need to provide some reasonable replacement.

D