Advice for Transitions [majordomo, etc.]

[chiphart]

We are strongly considering moving an existing majordomo/mailman-based mailing list and mhonarc-generated archive to vbulletin and are looking for any advice from those who have gone down this path.

When it comes to the list itself, it's simple to import the names, etc. What I wonder is if there are any subtle vbulletin settings that I might want to check out that will (at first) make the list work the way it does now? In other words, are there any lessons from majordomo/mailman conversions?

Second, and more important: our archive. Presently, our archive of the list generates a lot of WWW traffic for us. We don't want to lose all those nicely google-ranked URLs, but we would (ideally) have surfers land on a newly-managed vB archive instead. Searching here and on-line tells me that a) there isn't any ability to import the existing archive (whether in HTML or mbox formats), correct? Did I miss it somewhere?

Any advice, clues, etc., appreciated before we pull the trigger.

Thanks!

[Steve Machol]

Unfortunately the only things you can import are the usernames, email address and passwords - assuming you cn export these to a CVS file. None of the messages will be imported.

[chiphart]

Unfortunately the only things you can import are the usernames, email address and passwords - assuming you cn export these to a CVS file. None of the messages will be imported.

OK, given that this is the case, what have previous folks done about their existing archives and, for lack of a better term, the "url value" of them? Just leave the old archives as-are and add links to the new content? Bail on it all and hope for the best?

There isn't a right answer here, I'm just hoping to learn what experiences anyone in a similar position have had. We can't be the first people in this situation. Certainly, there are some transition lessons that can be shared, no?

Thanks.