9 [Done] Mailing Lists

Explore ways that alumni can send emails to lists without the list being abused for spam by outsiders (maybe can mail a group only after logging in to the site).

Work with the software tools used for alumni registration.

Ideally group of alumni should be able to create the lists "on the fly" -- such as a specific class, specific branch, specific year, all alumni, all in a geographic area etc.

Aakash has downloaded majordomo software but it will be best to get an owner for this so he can look after several other things.

Status update: The majordomo software has been configured and a sample mailing list has been setup. Several decisions have been made with respect to the mailing lists:

• We would not allow creation of arbitrary mailing lists contrary to what the original post suggested
  
• Mailing lists will be pre-defined and will be based on multiple different criteria like class, batch, class & batch, all alumni etc.
  
• There may be other mailing list created based on a chapter, project and Special Interest Group affiliation
  
• There will be a mailing list for organizational announcements from ITBHU.org itself
  
• Subscription to mailing list will be tied to the registration and alumni will have complete control over which mailing list they subscribe to
  
• Alumni will be able to change the subscription status for various mailing lists
  
• Mailing lists will be "closed", i.e. only people that are members of the mailing list would be able to post to the mailing list
  
• Mailing lists will be un-moderated
  
• Subscription and unsubscription will be closed too; the only way to subscribe/unsubscribe would be through the registration process or change-of-profile process
  
• Each registered alumni will have the option to reserve a unique virtual E-Mail address and associate with it their real E-mail address. This will be a well known and guessable address based on the name of the person and the branch/year-of-graduation (e.g. aakash_sahai@cse88.itbhu.org). ITBHU.org will provide services to forward any E-mail sent to this address to the associated real E-mail address.