In 2025, May First started the process of upgrading the software that handles our mailing lists.
Mailing lists allow you to send a single email message to one address, e.g.
my-group@lists.example.org, that is automatically copied to everyone who has subscribed to your list. They can be on-way announcement-only lists, or discussion lists in which any subscriber to reply to any message sent.
From the perspective of most of your list subscribers, who only send and receive email via their email programs, nothing will change. The main differences will be for people who administer/moderate one or more lists and subscribers that change their subscription options or want to browse the archives.
The main difference: the first time you try to manage your list or change your subscription options, you will have to create a brand new login linked to your email address. Once you confirm your email address, then this login will have access to all lists that are configured with the email address you provided. If you use more than one email address, you can add more email addresses to your login. Note: Your old email list passwords will no longer work and should be discarded after your list is upgraded.
Another difference is that if you use a custom domain name for your list, like lists.mygroup.org - then your email list footer will automatically use that same domain name in the directions for unsubscribing and accessing the archives via the web, instead of the current practice of using lists.mayfirst.org or lists.people-link.net depending on which server you are using. However, when you click on that link, you will be redirected to https://a.lists.mayfirst.org/ instead of your custom domain name, to ensure that the same login works regardless of which list you are managing or subscribed to.
Unfortunately, an un-wanted difference is that with the new system, you will not be able to change your list domain name after it is upgraded. You can create a new list and copy over the members and configuration, but you will not be able to change an existing list via the control panel like you can with the current version.
Want to use your own domain name with your list? Now is the time to make the change! Please login to the control panel, add your domain name as an MX record, look up your email list, and edit the list and change the domain name. Once we ugprade, it will no longer be possible to make this change.
Did you know that May First members have nearly 2,000 lists on our servers, but less than 500 lists have been active in the last year? Nearly 600 lists haven't had a message delivered in over five years!
We will start the upgrade process by culling un-used email lists. Any email list that has not had a message delivered in over 2 years will be deleted from our servers. To ensure we don't delete a list that a member wants to keep, we will send a membership-wide announcement asking members to review their email lists and notify us of any list that should be preserved. Additionally, we will send a specific message to all list owners and moderators of lists that have been dormant for 2 years warning them that their list will be retired unless we hear from them.
We will have a period of beta testing, where volunteers can ask to have their email list upgraded and report on their experiences. If you would like to beta test, please email support to let us know. And thanks to everyone who has already volunteered!
Next, we will slowly start migrating lists over a one to two month period, allowing us to discover and fix any potential problems the new system might present.
The email list software we are currently using (mailman version 2), has several problems that are fixed in the new version (mailman version 3), including: