= phenomenon = I am subscribed to both devel@lists.fedoraproject.org and test@lists.fedoraproject.org, and each time someone posts a message to both lists, I receive two copies.
= reason = This is the natural behavior if no special steps are taken, but it would be nice to avoid the duplicate messages.
= recommendation = Upgrade Mailman to >= 2.1.10 and then add one list to the other list's "regular_exclude_lists" option.
Our servers with mailman are RHEL5, so sadly:
mailman-2.1.9-4.el5
Once we migrate to RHEL6, this may be an option. I've never used this option before, any pointers to docs on it? How does it work?
Here is [http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~mailman-coders/mailman/2.1/annotate/head%3A/Mailman/Gui/NonDigest.py the documentation].
For example, if the regular_exclude_lists option for test@lists.fedoraproject.org contains devel@lists.fedoraproject.org, then when a message is sent to both lists, the test list will skip sending copies to people who are also on the devel list with mail delivery enabled. The result is that people who are subscribed to both lists get only one copy. The reverse configuration would also work.
After thinking some more, I'm not 100% sure that having one list suppress messages like this is a good approach. If the email client is capable of unduplicating messages, sending both and letting it deal with them is preferable because then user-configured filters specific to each of the two lists get a chance to run. But I don't know if there are any email clients in Fedora that unduplicate messages; at least Evolution doesn't. I'll leave the final decision to others.
Personally, I'd find this annoying if it were implemented. I keep lists in separate folders and want them to be complete. That's more important than the few bytes of disk space or bandwidth I'd save if this was enabled. Just my opinion, of course.
(Though, amusingly, I would bet that if we did debate this on one of the lists, the ensuing flamewar would consume more disk space and bandwidth than anyone participating would save with the setting enabled. ;)
Im going to close this as wontfix, there are arguments for and against both cases. I personally happen to filter my mail into different folders per list the same as tmz. and i want and expect the same behaviour this change would break things for me. I suspect most users are in the same boat. and what of the people only on one of the two lists? they would end up not getting some mail at all. that is completely unacceptable.
Replying to [comment:5 ausil]:
and what of the people only on one of the two lists? they would end up not getting some mail at all.
That is not true. As I [comment:3 explained], the feature would only make a difference for people who are on both lists, by suppressing one of the two copies. People on one list would continue to receive the single copy from that list.
The other reasons given for wontfix-ing this are valid.
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