[CLUE-Admin] mailman list admin

[CLUE President]

Greetings.

I am the admin for the majority of the clue email lists.  Spam is a growing 
problem.  I get anywhere from 20 - 50 messages per day which must be manually 
deleted via the mailman web interface from the pending queue.  

The long-term plan is to hook up spam assassin to our mailman instance.  Since 
we have not yet moved to the new server where we have spam assassin installed 
and I do not wish to set it up on the old server, I have installed a new cron 
job for the 'mailman' user.  The python script is in 
/home/mailman/cron/purge_lists.  I wrapped it for all lists in  
/home/mailman/cron/purge.sh, which is called by cron.

This cron job will purge pending messages from the pending queues of all 
lists.  Unfortunately, some legitimate posts will be lost.  In my experience, 
a tiny fraction of posts by non-subscribers (less than 1% of such posts) are 
legitimate.  For example, in the past 6 months, I have authorized only about 
12 legitimate posts by non-subscribers.  So, I thought this was a small price 
to pay.

Once we move to the new server (ever?), we can remove this cron job.  Until 
then, I will be saved the 15 minute - per -day hassle of tending to spam 
posts by non-subscribers.

Post any questions back to this list.
Thanks,
Jeff
-- 
Colorado Linux Users and Enthusiasts (CLUE)
http://cluedenver.org/
Jeffery Cann, President