Thanks! You wrote:

On 3/6/26 02:43, Lars Bjørndal wrote:

...

Hi, list!

I have an announce only Mailman3 list. When I log into the web interface as an admin user, and go to the specified list, and choose Settings, I find the Message Acceptance tab. There, I find the edit field Accept these non-members. But this field is empty, although I know that some people have permissions and are able to post to this list. How can I find the list of these non-members and add more people or delete someone?

I'm running Mailman version 3.3.10, and mailman-web version 4.2.21.

I don't know what mailman-web version 4.2.21 is. Is this some downstream package?

With pip list, some of the packages is:

Django 4.2.21 django-mailman3 1.3.15 HyperKitty 1.3.12 mailman 3.3.10 mailman-hyperkitty 1.2.1 mailman-web 0.0.9 mailmanclient 3.3.5 postorius 1.3.13

These are nonmembers whose moderation action is accept or defer. If your Postorius is >= 1.3.6, and the number of nonmembers is manageable you can just view the nonmembers list in Postorius and see their moderation action.

You mean from the web interface at example.com/mailman3 > list?

Otherwise a mailman shell interaction like

$ mailman shell -l list.example.com
Welcome to the GNU Mailman shell
Use commit() to commit changes.
Use abort() to discard changes since the last commit.
Exit with ctrl+D does an implicit commit() but exit() does not.
The variable 'm' is the list.example.com mailing list
>>> for nm in m.nonmembers.members:
...     if nm.moderation_action in (Action.accept, Action.defer):
...         print(f'{nm} {nm.moderation_action}')
...
>>>

will print those nonmembers with Action.accept or Action.defer.

What's the difference between Action.accept and Action.defer?

Thanks

Again, thank you for your reply!

You wrote:

On 3/6/26 12:52, Lars Bjørndal wrote:

[...]

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I have an announce only Mailman3 list. When I log into the web interface as an admin user, and go to the specified list, and choose Settings, I find the Message Acceptance tab. There, I find the edit field Accept these non-members. But this field is empty, although I know that some people have permissions and are able to post to this list. How can I find the list of these non-members and add more people or delete someone?

[...]

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These are nonmembers whose moderation action is accept or defer. If your Postorius is >= 1.3.6, and the number of nonmembers is manageable you can just view the nonmembers list in Postorius and see their moderation action.

[...]

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Otherwise a mailman shell interaction like

$ mailman shell -l list.example.com
Welcome to the GNU Mailman shell
Use commit() to commit changes.
Use abort() to discard changes since the last commit.
Exit with ctrl+D does an implicit commit() but exit() does not.
The variable 'm' is the list.example.com mailing list
> > > for nm in m.nonmembers.members:
...     if nm.moderation_action in (Action.accept, Action.defer):
...         print(f'{nm} {nm.moderation_action}')
...
> > > 

will print those nonmembers with Action.accept or Action.defer.

All addresses, both addresses that I know has sent messages to the list and others, are marked as MemberRole.nonmember> Action.defer

When I view non-members in postorius, I get some differences:

Some ar marked: Regular List default, and others Regular Default processing.

The list is imported from Mm 2.1 a long time ago. I don't know if that matters.

...

What's the difference between Action.accept and Action.defer?

Action.accept accepts the message immediately with no further checks. Action.defer passes the membership checks but still goes on to check other things like

mis-addressed email commands messages with implicit destination messages with too many explicit recipients messages that are bigger than a specified maximum messages with no, or empty, Subject headers messages with digest Subject or boilerplate quote messages matching a bounce_matching_header line

Hm, this is a mystery to me. Is there othere places I can search for addresses that are aloud to send to the list?

Thanks, Lars

On Mon, Mar 09, 2026 at 02:40:29AM +0900, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:

Lars Bjørndal writes:

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All addresses, both addresses that I know has sent messages to the list and others, are marked as MemberRole.nonmember> Action.defer

Post from these nonmembers go through normal checks (spam, for example) before being distributed.

...

When I view non-members in postorius, I get some differences:

Some ar marked: Regular List default, and others Regular Default processing.

"List default" means "this user has not made a choice, so Mailman will check what is 'normal' for the list in the list's configuration".

In detail, Postorius is intended to allow users and list administrators to *modify* configurations. At delivery time, these configurations "cascade", typically in this way:

• if this subscription has a setting, apply it, and return; if not
• if the address this subscription delivers to has a setting, apply it, and return; if not
• if the user who owns that address has a setting, apply it, and return; if not
• if the list that is subscribed to has a setting, apply it, and return;
• otherwise, use the fallback setting from the source code.

In Postorius, the "no setting" option is displayed in such a way that the person considering changing the setting knows what the next level of the cascade is. "List default" means "this user has not made a choice, so Mailman will check what is 'normal' for the list in the list's configuration".

"Default processing" is a regular option, that can be applied to this post. It means "check if the user is allowed to post at all, then check for reasons (eg, spam) why this post might not be OK". Usually "list normal" is also "Default processing", but it might be "Hold for moderator", for example.

On the other hand, Mark's script will return the option that will be applied using the logic of the cascade.

Which script?

...

The list is imported from Mm 2.1 a long time ago. I don't know if that matters.

I don't think it does.

...

Hm, this is a mystery to me. Is there othere places I can search for addresses that are aloud to send to the list?

I don't understand what you want. The "mailman shell interaction" that Mark posted earlier gives you exactly the list of members who can post to the specified list. If some are "trusted users" who don't go through the spam checker, etc, they are displayed with Action.accept. Other posters are displayed with Action.defer. But both will automatically be distributed as long as they appear to be legit posts (not spam, etc).

As menitoned in my first post, this is an announce-only list.

In the Settings for this list, under Message Acceptance, the Default action to take when a member posts to the list is set to (X) Reject (with notification). The same goes for non-members. In the same Tab, Accept these non-members edit field is empty. Because one of the subscribed addresses to this list is another mailing list, all messages goes both to this announce-only list and to the subscribed list. So to the announce list, there are a few non-members that are allowed to post, e.g. bypass the default actions, which is set to Reject.

Hope this clarify my situation a bit. I don't see any place where to find the list of allowed addresses to post.

Thanks, Lars

Thank you. You wrote:

Lars Bjørndal writes:

...

...

On the other hand, Mark's script will return the option that will be applied using the logic of the cascade.

Which script?

Search for "mailman shell interaction" in Mark's earlier post.

Ah, I understand. I thought you were thinking of a different script, sorry.

...

As menitoned in my first post, this is an announce-only list.

In the Settings for this list, under Message Acceptance, the Default action to take when a member posts to the list is set to (X) Reject (with notification). The same goes for non-members. In the same Tab, Accept these non-members edit field is empty. Because one of the subscribed addresses to this list is another mailing list, all messages goes both to this announce-only list and to the subscribed list. So to the announce list, there are a few non-members that are allowed to post, e.g. bypass the default actions, which is set to Reject.

You need to find the addresses of those users in the nonmember list. This is NOT "accept these nonmembers"; it is the "nonmember" in the "Users" drop-down menu on the list management page. If they are not there, you can add their addresses from the nonmember list page. Then set their action to Accept (if you fully trust that their addresses won't be spoofed) or Defer (if you are worried about that possibility).

Yes, understand. Thanks.

...

Hope this clarify my situation a bit. I don't see any place where to find the list of allowed addresses to post.

There isn't one, except for the shell interaction Mark posted.

Thanks.

Lars

Thank you. I think I understand the mechanism.

Lars