GroupsMigration

On March 20th 2020 OE moved from self-managed Mailman to the Groups.io platform, which provides mailing list services in a simple but modern interface. Groups.io offers all of the capabilities of our existing Mailman mailing service plus additional community tools that make it an exceptional service solution.

What are the key differences between Mailman and Groups.io?

• Groups.io has a modern interface, robust user security model, and interactive, searchable archives

• Groups.io provides advanced features including muting threads and integrations with modern tools like GitHub, Slack, and Trello

• Groups.io also has optional extras like a shared calendar, polling, chat, a wiki, and more

• Groups.io uses a concept of subgroups, where members first join the project “group” (a master list, normally called "main"), then they choose the specific “subgroup” lists they want to subscribe to

How is the experience different for me as a list moderator or participant?

In many ways, it is very much the same. Moderation is much more streamlined. If you interaction primarily via your e-mail client you won't notice a change at all. Some From headers will be re-written to pass DMARC. This will require maintainers to alter author information before applying patches. We've added hooks to the git server to prevent bad author info from making it into the repositories.

Where do I find the settings and owner/moderator tools?

To change settings while in a group or subgroup, left click “Admin” from the side menu.

Then from “Admin” you can select:

“Settings” to change overall settings for a group, including privacy and message policy settings.

“Members” to manage people within a group, including adjusting their role and privileges

“Pending” to view messages pending moderation

If you’d like to learn more about using Groups.io , please reference their help documentation.

What about outstanding messages and subscriptions in the moderation queue?

Pending memberships or posts (and similar pending moderation actions) in Mailman were not preserved in this migration. Most list owners cleaned up their queues shortly before the migration so very little was discarded.

I sent a message during the migration. Will is arrive?

Messages sent to the mailing lists during the migration window will take one to several hours to arrive depending on your mail server configuration. No messages were accepted by the mail server that did not make it into the migration.

What about outstanding links to the pipermail archives?

The current archives available as they are at a new URL. For example:

https://lists.openembedded.org/pipermail/openembedded-devel/2020-March/date.html -> https://www.openembedded.org/pipermail/openembedded-devel/2020-March/date.html

Existing archives have been imported into groups.io and are available to browse there.

Reply-to header changes

Currently openembedded-commits@lists.openembedded.org reply-to is set to openembedded-devel@lists.openembedded.org. After the migration replies will go to sender.

Automated e-mail sent from non-receiving addresses

Any e-mail needs to come from an address that can receive e-mail. If you have a long-standing automated process it might be possible to whitelist certain non-receiving addresses. Reach out directly about this.

Who can help in case of issue? / My question isn't answered here. What should I do?

If you are facing any issue related to the Groups.io migration or have an unaddressed question, please e-mail pointofcontact@lists.yoctoproject.org. Yocto Project admins manage the current Mailman lists and are helping with the migration.