Continuing to run Mailman and Discourse using the exact email addresses (as Mailman) in parallel

migration
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My company has a huge Mailman archive and a majority of the early users still prefer the Mailman interaction workflow.

Management wants Mailman to still run but at the same time to start a phase-based online engagement experience using Discourse (assuming contents have already been migrated from Mailman to kickstart the Discourse community in the preceding phase) while preserving the use of the same mailing list/addresses.

My question is to what extent is that possible and practical using a self-hosting option or Discourse Enterprise plan?

My apologies for not being sure if this topic fits this category :pinched_fingers:

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Self-Hosting Option:

You set it up and manage the updates and maintenance.

Discourse Enterprise plan:

Discourse Team set it up and manage the updates and maintenance.

Importing Current content:

I found this post to help you with importing the data

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Thanks, Gavin

I already checked that guide. which still leaves me with the following questions:

    • during the mbox imports can I import a Mailman list into a specific Discourse category/sub-category or will the import replicate the exact Mailman structure on Discourse?
    • can I use a mailman address (eg de@bo.net) configured on Discourse to receive replies and new topics from its original subscribers of de@bo.net to a new Discourse category/sub-category (eg De/Bonet)?

Cheers

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I am not to sure about this as I have never personally imported a ML before, but I know there are admin bulk actions to move posts in categories where you want them.

yes this is possible

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If you choose to migrate to our business or enterprise hosting, we include three days of migration work which is usually enough. See https://www.discourse.org/migrations for details on migrating to Discourse.

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Yes, that’s possible – Importing / migrating mailing lists (mbox, Listserv, Google Groups, emails, ...) has instructions for it. Also, if you choose our hosting, we can do it for you.

Yes, you can create a read-only mirror of the mailing list. All emails that get sent to the mailing list will appear inside a category in Discourse. Please note, we recommend that you disallow any replies in such a category to prevent any confusion, because Discourse will never send emails to the mailing list.

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