[AktiviX-discuss] mailman size limits

[Alan Dawson]

On Sun, Jun 01, 2014 at 12:55:56PM +0100, mark wrote:
> Hi people,
> 
> I'm administering the list dfs3 at lists.aktivix.org and some subscribers
> are finding it difficult to understand why they can't send large
> attachments.
> 
> As it's an educational project, I thought I should write a short blog
> piece to explain why, and how to share files better. Please can people
> eyeball this to check I'm not about to give out incorrect or outdated
> information?
> 

You can increase the size limit from the default 40kb.  The server has 
maximum size for message set to 2M bytes.  Mainly to prevent denial of
service, and large attachments being archived.

Adding large attachments to email does affect the ability to users on 
slow connections ( which they are less of these days ) to participate.

There are less slow network connections these days, but they have been 
replaced with connections that are capped with usage limits.  These 
also are affected by large attachments in email.  

These factors are the same whatever service provider you use.

> Thanks in advance,
> Mark
> 
> <<
> To publish at:
>  network23.org/dfs3
> 
> Title:
>  Using Shared Resources Effectively: Mailing Lists
> 
> Body:
>  The internet has a lot of services that claim to be "free" in the
> sense that you don't have to pay up-front to use them. These are
> mostly funded by advertising revenues from the websites and by selling
> information about how we, the users, behave on the internet.
> 
>  Some people are trying to run services that are different to this.
> For example, the blog you're now reading is funded by donations (link)
> and run by volunteers. For anyone who's idea of "free" extends beyond
> not having to pay up-front; to include things like not being under
> permanent surveillance and not having your attention to adverts sold
> as a commodity; this seems much better.
> 
>  However, making a switch from corporate services to ones that are
> free in a more profound sense requires us to change the way we use the
> internet in ways that aren't always obvious.
> 
>  Let's look at mailing lists as an example. If you're used to using
> google groups or yahoo lists, you'll expect to be able to send large
> files as attachments. These will either be forwarded to everyone on
> the list; or stored on a server, the contents analysed for what kind
> of advertising to show alongside it, and a link to it's web address
> put in your email, which when you click on it monitors that you're
> interested in that kind of stuff. In either case, the money to run the
> service comes from corporate marketing budgets.
> 
>  When you use a service that's funded by donations, the situation is
> different because there isn't a huge budget to pay for all the network
> traffic created by the above approaches. And even if there was, it'd
> still be better to reduce the amount of work the machines have to do,
> as it all uses energy, and besides, isn't it a good thing to be aware
> that you're sharing a resource with other people, so you'll only take
> what you need?
> 
>  The way this plays out with the Mailman free software which powers
> dfs3 at lists.aktivix.org is that message sizes are limited to 40KB by
> default, which means no big file attachments. So what should you do if
> you want to show everyone on the list the file you've created?
> 
>  First things first: in line with our focus on Free Software, you
> should always try to share files in open formats. Not only does this
> increase the likelihood that people will be able to read it properly,
> open formats are also likely to mean smaller files with the same
> amount of useful information.
> 
>  Then, think of a place on the internet where you can upload your
> file. This could be a blog, a wiki, and etherpad, a personal web page
> (some ISPs give you one as part of your bundle), or even a dedicated
> site for network organising like we.riseup.net . Upload the file you
> want to share, and make a note of it's URL.
> 
>  Now when you write your email to the list, you can paste in that URL
> instead of attaching the file. When people get your email, only the
> people who really want to see it will click on the link, which saves
> on network bandwidth, and downloaders will all click at slightly
> different times, meaning there isn't a big peak in demand at a single
> time.
> 
>  Have you found any other ways of sharing your files? Share your ideas
> using the 'comments' function below.

owncloud is neat way to share files.   Aktivix provide an owncloud instance
at https://owncloud.aktivix.org 

Also compressing files using zip/gzip etc will help.

Hope that helps,

Alan Dawson
-- 
"The introduction of a coordinate system to geometry is an act of violence"
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