In between versions of mailman they changed the way that the process
that delivers mail gets run; it used to be run from cron, now it's a
continuous process that you have to start separately.
When we upgraded mailman a while back, it looks like the command to
start it didn't quite make it into the startup scripts. I'm pretty sure
I've got it right in /etc/rc.local now, so when the machine gets next
rebooted (for hardware upgrades, knock on wood), the mailing lists
_shouldn't_ go silent mysteriously until someone remembers to start them
up again. I hope.
Which brings me to my next point: we _really_ need to get the lists
moved to a separate server that doesn't crash regularly, blocking our
ability to communicate with one another.
Something entirely offsite is not unreasonable; if the hosting center
catches fire or San Diego sinks into the sea ;) we should still be able
to bitch at each other about it on the lists.
The lists shouldn't require a _huge_ amount of bandwidth. It doesn't
need a low-latency connection to the database server (or any connection,
rather). It just needs a reliable host.
-- brion vibber (brion @
pobox.com)