Hi everyone. I’d like to start a mailing list for Open Access in the field of law. Is it possible to run it via lists.okfn.org?
Hi @dhuerlimann. We are not actively using mailman anymore and would suggest using the forum instead. It is possible to use it kind of as a mailing list if all the members receive every update from the group. We can definitely create a topic for that.
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Interesting. Two advantages of mailman not catered for by discourse: private mailing lists are supported (closed discusions have a role sometimes) and public mailing lists can be prevented from being indexed by search engines using a robot.txt (also possible for discourse but mailing lists tend to be more targeted than forums).
Is there a reason that OKI is moving away from mailing lists? Is it simply the admin overhead?
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Another advantage is that you don’t have to set up an account.
These are very good points you both raise. Since 2016 we’ve been moving project communications to the Discourse forum, especially since we couldn’t manage to moderate lists that weren’t attached to a specific project. Also, mailman is not GDPR compliant and we are planning on moving to a GDPR compliant tool. So Lists won’t necessarily disappear, we just won’t create new lists on mailman for now.
@oscarmontiel Thanks. I am currently planning a maths‑based open source project for school students among others and some participants may well be under 16 years. There are special GDPR and Fundamental Rights considerations for minors. I could set a minimum age but then how can one check for certain.
@dhuerlimann, I created a new topic for discussions surrounding #working-groups:open-law.
I hope it’s helpful!
I’d like to start a mailing list. Did I understand correctly that the OKFN does not offer support for this?
Hi Daniel, we are indeed not supporting new mailing lists on our service. I saw that you also sent an email to the lists service that talks about a list in German. If you are looking to set up a German-language list, maybe our colleagues at Open Knowledge Germany would be happy to support you, as they host the German lists. It would be useful to understand your objectives with the initiative better via the topic that @todrobbins created? CC @knutator
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