At 2:09 PM -0400 7/28/00, Tim Pierce is rumored to have typed:
In our case, because we don't agree with your premise above. I used to be less sympathetic, too, but it turns out that there are an awful lot of people who get spooked by a command line and yet make perfectly fine list managers if they have a Web-based admin interface to work with.
(*sigh*) I am guessing you are leasing mailing lists, which is a completely different issue. Those people aren't list admins, they are people who are the titular head of a mailing list. Apples and oranges. (And, frankly, I wouldn't be using SmartList for that, since there are less expensive commercial alternatives for commercial list leasing, but that's a seperate issue I don't want to get into.)
Another reason is that editing on-disk files, such as the accept list or digest.admin is annoying and inconvenient to do in e-mail (indeed, I don't think it's possible in stock SmartList).
Either is subscription confirmation. If you really want it, it's easy enough to write...but why bother?
It's loads easier to do that on the Web.
No, it's loads easier to do with pico, or joe, or (ugh) vi, or even grep; it's a pain in the arse to do on the Web in comparison. But again, you're in a different position - you are intentionally trying to make it so simple that people who shouldn't be operating a mailing list in the first place don't hurt anything on your system while pretending to be in charge of one. That's not being a list admin...like it or no, _you_ are the administrator for the list server. So if _you_ need a web-based form to admin the server, my earlier comments apply. Otherwise, you're clouding the issue. Most of the people on _this_ mailing list are installing SmartList on their own servers (or even on a virtual server, which is perfectly possible since SmartList doesn't require root; I ran it that way for a lot of years because my providers wouldn't/couldn't install it), not people leasing lists from their providers (who, by definition, should be providing the support). It is to _those_ people I refer. The leasors are _assumed_ to be the same folks I referred to Topica or eGroups, and _should_ have their hands held by the admin (that's you). It's the admins of the servers who should know better, and as we've seen time and time again, don't seem to. Charlie