[aclug-L] Re: change of email address

[Tom Hull <thull@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Joseph Weaver wrote:
> 
> There is no place at yuor referenced web site to merely change an email
> address.  Another example of aclug ineptness.  With all the talent in the
> aclug, there ought to be an easier way to make this simple change.  I for
> one an completely dismayed by our attempt to atract new members when we
> can't even handle simple stuff.  Cox cable is going to completely shut off
> Road Runner soon so we will lose communication with some of our members if
> we do not take immediate action.

Ineptness? The way ACLUG (or any other LUG) works is that things get done
for all of us when some individual steps forward and works on it. Taunting
may provoke action, but it's not gonna win you many friends.

I'm a kscable subscriber, but through some combination of denial and disgust
I haven't even looked up what needs to be done. The Cox documentation, natch,
is worthless. Given how many kscable subscribers we have in ACLUG, it would
be good for someone to figure out just what this means to us Linux users and
post it. If nobody else does that before I get around to it, I'll probably
take a stab at it. Either that or switch to DSL.

As for changing your mail addresses, the underlying software is ecartis
(p/k/a listar). You can find out a bit about how this works by sending
messages to listar@xxxxxxxxx. This mail is read for commands. E.g., if
you put

  commands

into the subject or text of a message, Ecartis will send you a message back
with a list of commands. I don't see anything there that will simply solve
the problem, although I wonder what "setaddy" actually does ("Reset address
to same user on a sub-domain"). But it looks like what you can do would be
to send two messages. The first would be

  which

This will return a list of mail lists that you are subscribed to. Then take
each mail list and compose a new message like:

  unsubscribe discussion
  subscribe discussion me@xxxxxxx
  unsubscribe linux-help
  subscribe linux-help me@xxxxxxx

If this works (I haven't tested it), one of you perl hackers could wrap
it up in a simple script. (It could be more complicated for restricted
lists, like committee.)

Another approach would be for someone to go in and hack the database that
ecartis uses. The best way to do that would be to change the source code
to add a new feature to change one's email address. The source code is
free, so feel free to hack on that. When you're done, try to talk John
Goerzen into installing it. The advantage of this is that you don't lose
all sorts of accumulated information, like admin passwords.

BTW, if you're signed up to the new aclug website, changing your email
address is straightforward:

  http://aclug.notwerk.net/

  log in (if you're not already logged in)

  goto My Workspace: /pvt/home.tcl

  look for "Basic Information" and click on update: /pvt/basic-info-update.tcl

  change your email address and click on Update

This will update the database, preserving everything else known about you,
whereas subscribe/unsubscribe loses information. Since we can run all sorts
of mail lists off the new website, it may be better to put some work in
that direction. (So while you're changing, throw in an extra "subscribe
webdev".)

-- 
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 *  Tom Hull * thull at kscable.com * http://www.tomhull.com/
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