LIST OWNER/ADMIN - stuff happening

Several things happening on the classiccmp server front.... 1) I'm looking into cleaning up the old mohnarc list archives, and integrating them into the current mailman archives. This would also include filling in the couple of missing months as well as scrubbing the email addresses from the old archives. The old archives are currently offline, pending me completing this task. I am going to try and put in a search function as well, and MAYBE a thread view. 2) I'm also looking into upgrading the mailman list software to the latest stable version. This has a whole bunch of new features - most for list admins, but a decent amount of new user features as well. See list.org and the 2.1 release for specifics. 3) One of the features in the new mailman is the introduction of the isolated list moderator role. Right now there is just the list owner, and the subscribers. To approve posts on a moderated list (cctech), or posts do this on each individual post (web based). The screens that come up for this also include list configuration items that a list moderator only shouldn't be able to change. With the new software, since there is a list moderator type user, that means I can solicit responsible people from the list to help moderate posts, without giving them access to system wide list configuration. If anyone would like to volunteer to be a list moderator, I'd like to get a few people to help after I get the new software installed. You don't need to know anything about unix or mailman, you just have to be able to use a web browser and look at each post and click "accept, discard, etc.". Ideally I'd like to get a few people that are spread across different time zones who are willing to do this once a day. If several people do this, the flow of posts requiring moderation should be a lot quicker. I am guessing that if we have maybe 3 moderators, it wouldn't take each person more than 5-10 minutes a day, or every other day. If interested, contact me off-list. The new version of mailman has some new spam filters. Spam is already caught for moderation, so these spam features would just make it less work for the moderator as to the number of posts to discard. If this works really well, I may not need additional moderators. 4) The server hosting the list has become... ermmm "cluttered". I want to reinstall the OS from scratch and everything along with it. This is partially to get current on all the packages used on the server (read: security reasons), and partly because the machine is just cluttered up. Yes, all the current archives and such will be maintained across the install of course. This DOES mean that the list would be totally down when I swap the drives, perhaps for 20 minutes. Of course I'll let the list know in advance when this is to be done. 5) The server is starting to swap (not enough memory), and the main data disk is about 60% full. When the server was purchased, going from memory here... various listmembers contributed around $220 bucks, and I paid about $200 out of my own pocket to cover the box. I would like to definitely upgrade the memory to 512mb, this will cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $120 (maybe $20, researching). I'm also thinking about upgrading the data drive from 20gb to 170gb. This would cost about $99 bucks. Would anyone be interested in helping out with donations towards these? Either cash or the requisite hardware. Let me know off-list if so. Don't just go straight to paypal, I need to research a little further if the drive is required. I'll let the list know my findings then. Part of the reason for considering more disk is that the one there is a bit over half full, but most of it is because I want to mirror a large number of classic computer related files dedicated to classiccmp stuff, nothing else is on it. 6) Finally, I've got some ideas for things I want to do to the classiccmp website. I'm an admin, not a web developer, so I'm curious if there is anyone on the list who is willing to do specific changes to the classiccmp.org website. Most of the things I want to put there need to be done in PHP and possibly mySQL so being familiar with those is important. And finally, (putting on some body armor first), I'm in the mode of taking requests - so if anyone has suggestions for things they'd like to see on the website or changes to the list, please contact me OFF LIST. I'd love to hear any ideas you all may have for improvements. Depending on the suggestion, I may just implement it or reject it, or I may bring it to the list for discussion/decision as to if it should be done. Regards, Jay West