[sf-lug] SF-LUG list (etc.) hosting: Re: Belated writeup of last SF-LUG meeting

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Michael Paoli (michael.paoli at cal.berkeley.edu):

> Also, regardless of where the list is hosted, could always reconfigure
> things such that list could use the sf-lug.org domain

And, by the way, this could at some future date include the installation
on my server, which could have an alias identity as lists.sf-lug.org -- 
as could, as Michael said, any other machine desired to fill that role.

In years past, my server used to be used by the now-late monthly webzine
_Linux Gazette_ to host its mailing lists, in which capacity the DNS 
identity lists.linuxgazette.net pointed to it.

Which leads me to another thing Michael's suggesting:  It's generally
speaking a good idea to put mailing lists on a subdomain, the usual
one being lists.$FOO , analogous to the domain's Web site being at
www.$FOO, and sometimes non-lists e-mail at mail.$FOO .  This initial
choice often pays off down the road.  For example, Silicon Valley Linux
User Group did the www vs lists dichotomy, and doing so permitted
sometimes having www on the same physical server as lists, and other
times migrating them to separate machines, transparently to the user.

But, anyway, I'd encourage any or all of you to experiment with Internet
mail as a server operation, because that's the only real way to learn, 
and that's how I and (I'm sure) Michael learned how to do it.

Back when I started fooling around with running my own Unix servers 
at the end of the 1980s, I was _not_ an IT guy, but rather a staff
accountant and finance guy.  I succeeded at running my own e-mail
operation (and later a Web site, which is easier) because nobody
advised me it was too difficult, so I had the happy discovery that it
_wasn't_ too difficult.  Later still (around 1997), I had a social need
best addressed with mailing list software, so I set up Majordomo, the
most popular choice before Mailman, and it Just Worked -- because
mailing lists are actually pretty easy to set up and run.  The SMTP mail
operation it runs on top of is more challenging -- mostly because of
antispam and the tighter requirement on servers that have resulted from
the spam war.

Anyway:  The way you get it done starts with:  Try.  

If you don't try, nothing happens.


> Really can even do web site hosting, etc. elsewhere if you want.

A basic Web site is actually dead-simple to set up and run.


But, seriously, if anyone wants to try to build and run an SMTP mail
server (the harder bit) and perhaps mailing lists on top of that (the
easy bit), I'm sure Michael and I would be glad to help, starting with
combing our memories for all of those "Oh, yes, and you need a valid
reverse-DNS entry, and you'd better do SPF at least" sorts of things --
all of those "Do this list of things to avoid having your mail rejected
as suspiciously smelling like spam" items.