
        ListServ Version 1.0 Information, Features and Requirements
        ===========================================================
                 (c) 1996 Tom Bampton, All rights reserved

Information
~~~~~~~~~~~
ListServ allows you to run mailing lists on your Amiga. This is not limited
to the internet only, it can be setup for local networks and with a little
work a FidoNet style mail network. There is no need for a 24 hour connection,
although your lists will be considerably faster if you are connected 24 hours.
ListServ supports many powerfull features, it tries to combine all the
features you would need in a list server and makes everything totally
optional. You run the lists the way _you_ want to, not the way the programmer
does. Also, its possible to have more then one list and each list with its
own settings, for instance, you may want a discussion list for posting from
anyone, and another list as announce, for posts only by you and the list
owner. You may want the announce list to have a digest, and the discussion
list not to, all of this is possible with ListServ, and more.

Requirements
~~~~~~~~~~~~
You will need an Amiga connected to some kind of network allowing mail such
as the Internet. Some method of recieving mail is required, obviously, and
the program used for that MUST be able to make standard RFC822 compliant spool
files, otherwise you will need a program to convert the networks mail files
to RFC822 compliant spool files. For the internet, GetMail on aminet will work
for POP3 recieve, and SMTPd in INetUtils 1.4 (also on aminet) will work for
incomming SMTP mails (Demon users in the UK will need this to recieve mail
anyway).

Some kind of post program is required to send mail to the network, this also
must be RFC822 compliant and be able to handle To, From, Subject fields in
the temporary mailfile (they all can be specified on the command line also),
PutMail and SMTPpost (Aminet and INetUtils 1.4) will work fine for this.

A 24 hour connection is _NOT_ required, as long as some method of storing mail
on your mail server is available, such as a POP3 account or some kind of SMTP
store program running on the mail host (such as mailstore for Demon users).
Normally you wont need to worry about this, your mail host will take care of
that. Please note, web based mail systems that offer free email accounts are
usually unsuitable, as reading and writing is done on the web, and not via
a POP3 account, GeoCities is the only exception I can think of right now.

The ability to create email addresses is preferable, altho it is possible to
run all the mailing lists off one email address, this is both hard to setup and
annoying for the users.

Tip: If you can't create email addresses on your mail host, and you dont
already have an account with GeoCities, get an account there (its free) and
put your list's homepage on there, and use the free email account (POP3) for
your mailing list.  If you already have a GeoCities account, and dont use your
GeoCities email address as your main one, then think about changing your
member name to something suitable for your list and run the list off that.
NOTE: U will probably need a program to strip the crap that GeoCities adds to
mail. 

Demon users will not have a problem with this, as it is very easy to create
email addresses.

Hardware wise, any Amiga running Workbench 2.04+ should be able to handle
it. Memory useage depends on the amount of lists you have, the amount of users
in the current list being processed, and the size of the spool file. The
program itself hardly takes any memory up at all.

Features
~~~~~~~~
This is my ToDo list, not all features are implemented yet, and some may not
be done till a later version. I'm always open to suggestions :)

 o Will work with any mail network (a little work may be needed in some cases)
 
 o Amount of mailing lists limited only by memory
 
 o Each mailing list run off 1 email address (optional, u can have a commands
   address and a post address for each list if you want)
 
 o Ability to automatically generate a help file, or use one you have written,
   or both.
 
 o Optionally allow users who haven't subscribed to post to the list (usefull
   for virtual help desks)
 
 o Full logging of commands sent to the list, posts and all mail sent to the
   list (everything is completely optional)
 
 o Ability to change the name of the subscribe, unsubscribe and help commands
 
 o Ability to easily add your own commands to the list. Each mailing list may
   have its own individual commands along with the standard commands
 
 o Each list may be of a different type (discuss or announce)
 
 o Each List may be open or closed, an open list will allow anyone with a
   valid email address to join, and a closed list will only let people join
   once the list owner has verifyed them.
 
 o Each list may be moderated or not, the moderator is settable and doesn't
   have to be the list owner. All mail to the list will be sent to the
   moderator who will read and verify each message and then post it to the
   list.
 
 o Each list may have its own digest, or not, whichever you like. When the
   user subscribes, they set whether they want the digest when it reaches a
   cirtain size which is settable. This is settable by the user only when they
   subscribe or by using the options command.
 
 o If you already have a list of users you want to add to the list, this is
   possible too. ListServ will read a file of RFC822 compliant addresses and
   set the default options of nodigest
 
 o Optionally remove all file attaches from posts
 
 o Optional subscriber limit (not settable by list owner, only by the
   listmaster)
 
 o User aliases, so they can use the list from more then one email address,
   but all mail from the list goes to their one main mail box (except command
   replies)
 
