OBF mailing lists migrating to paid hosting, likely Mailchimp
We’re sharing some important news with you regarding our mailing lists. From early on, we’ve maintained a self-hosted Mailman server for any OBF project that needs a mailing list, including our member roster list. After careful consideration, we have decided we need a solution that keeps track more reliably with current and emerging spam-fighting technologies and standards, and that simultaneously requires much less administration time and know-how. Specifically, we are planning to migrate the lists to paid hosting, possibly Mailchimp.
As an open-source community, we understand the importance of using open solutions whenever possible. However, in this case, we feel that switching to a paid provider is the right call for our organization. Mailchimp will offer us a simpler solution with features that should significantly improve the overall user experience for our members. Additionally, it will be easier for us to maintain and manage the mailing lists, which will free up resources for other important initiatives.
We understand that open-source solutions are important to many of our members, but having a stable, reliable, user-friendly, and cost-effective mailing list is essential to our community’s success. If you have personal experience with another mailing list provider that you believe would provide similar or better functionality than Mailchimp, and that is more open, we’d love to hear about it – please contact us by Monday 3 April 2023. You can submit your suggestions by leaving comments in this GitHub issue, or contact us in the OBF Slack.