==Email Forwarding==
The Email Forwarding system is presently housed on the Society's virtual server at the Dallas RimuHosting site, and must be accessed remotely. It consists primarily of a list in '/etc/postfix/virtual'. Once edited, 'postfix /etc/postfix/virtual' must be run. There is a macro called 'emailmaint' that launches the file in 'nano' and then runs 'postfix' to make sure all is done.
The structure of the file is that each line may list an email address followed by one or more addresses to which mail received for the first is forwarded. If a line starts with a space, tab, or #, it is considered a comment. The first address must be separated from the second by a space or tab. The second address must be separated from any others by a comma (and no space or tab). Addressing may be recursive; that is, one address may forward to another Society address, as when <chivalry.comm@augustansociety.org> forwards to <chivalry@augustansociety.org> (and others), which in turn forwards to the current chairman <firstname.lastname@augustansociety.net>, before finally being forwarded to the member's personal email.
The file has been organized into four the following sections:
# * By group, department, and committee — .ORG addresses are found here;# * By the names of members and other participants — .NET addresses are found here;# * By the names of companies to whom an email address has been assigned for the purpose of spam tracking — .COM addresses are found here;# * Spam sections, organized by years collected easily identified — these are forwarded to a "bit spam bucket" (presently <bmetcalf2@yahoo.com>); and# * Catchall to direct mail to all three the .NET and .COM Society domains that are not found above, which route to the Postmaster for resolution.* Catchall to direct mail to the .ORG Socity domain to the "spam bucket"; there is too much of this to review.
Notices of appointments to office should be copied to the Postmaster so that he can make appropriate changes to this file. Note please that the first section should only forward to other .ORG addresses or to .NET member addresses, not directly to a private email address. Such private addresses should only be forwarded to from the second section.
The Postmaster Notices of appointments to office should be given sufficient access copied to the Postmaster by [[Membership DatabaseHeadquarters Staff]] so that he can view, edit, and delete the email addresses of members and others listed there. He should also be given notice of new members, but it is not required that all members be listed in the second section. Present practice is make appropriate changes to add them only when they are appointed to an office and might thus need a listing, or upon request. They are not routinely removed if they drop all officesthis file.
When someone discontinues their membershipThe Postmaster should be given sufficient access to the Membership Database that he can view, or when a non-member contributor ends his relationshipedit, they and delete the email addresses of members and others listed there. He should immediately also be removed from citations in the first sectiongiven notice of new members, but left it is not required that all members be listed in the second section for at least a month. An obvious exception Present practice is to add them only when they are appointed to an individual diesoffice or committee and might thus need a listing, or upon request. They are not routinely removed if they drop all offices, though an occasional purge is forcibly ejected from the Society, in which case they should be removed immediatelyprobably wise.
The Society receives When someone discontinues their membership, or when a very substantial amount of spam. Going through this to pluck out non-member contributor ends his relationship, they should immediately be removed from citations in the few valid messages takes more than 10% of first section, but left in the webmaster's hourssecond section for at least a month. He An obvious exception is presently working on when an improved spam filter to reduce this burden. The Postmaster is expected to do this nearly dailyindividual dies, resigns, with backups (or is forcibly ejected from the Webmaster) being asked to cover for any extended absenceSociety, in which case they should be removed immediately.
The Society receives a very substantial amount of spam. Going through this to pluck out the few valid messages takes a great deal of the Postmaster's hours. He is presently working on an improved spam filter to reduce this burden. The Postmaster is expected to check the spam buckets this nearly daily, with backups (or the Webmaster) being asked to cover for any extended absence.
Current plans are to abandon our Postfix server in favor of "G Suites". Maintenance of the Postfix server will be minimal going forward in anticipation of this change.
==Email Server & Spam Filter==
At present, forwarded email is filtered using SpamAssassin, and those with a failing score are flagged as spam. Unfortunately they are still delivered, which means that recipients still have to filter or delete them locally. Staff are looking into ways to improve on this.
It has been proposed that the Society should build our own email server, rather than relying solely upon a forwarder with a spam filter attached. This is the primary technical question for the Postmaster unknow at this time. Once a decision is reached, it how spam filtering will be up to the Postmaster to implement such a system, or to hire it done, as authorized by the Budgethandled under G Suites.
==Reporting==
Reporting to the Webmaster is expected to be fairly rare. No reports need be made of statistics, new spam sources, or other problems that can be handled without Webmaster involvement. They should be made when the Webmaster has questions, proposals for significant change, or challenges he cannot surmount in a reasonable time. This particularly includes a shortage of drive space or other capacity problems.
Submitting an [[Annual ReportsReport]] to the Board each July may be pro-forma, unless major change is proposed, such as installing an Email Serverchanging the email forwarding system, which news need not wait for the annual report cycle. The [[Webmaster]] may call for your Annual Reports Report in June to permit him to consolidate them for his July report.
----
* [[Webmaster|back to Webmaster]]* [[Communications|back to Communications]]* [[Main Page|back to Main Page]]