There are three modules designed within the last 18 months that all purport to provide the same basic functionality: creating new nodes in an organic group via email.
http://drupal.org/project/mail2og (June 10 2009) alpha version
http://drupal.org/project/og_mailhandler (Sept 22, 2009) a dev version
http://drupal.org/project/og_mailinglist (March 17, 2010) alpha version

it is unclear why the second two even exist (full disclosure, I helped to spec out Mail2og with arthurf). But I am not speaking selfishly. I don't care one way or another which module or approach delivers the functionality. I just want to see the functionality available with drupal. But instead of having a solid module that allows users to create nodes within a specific organic group we have 3 modules none of which have stable releases.

I am sure that the developers of these modules, at one point or another, were motivated either by interest or a client contract to provide this functionality. I am also sure that between the three a fare amount of work and thinking has gone in to solving the problem. Perhaps one, two or all three of the developers would be interested in collaborating on developing a module if not for drupal6 than looking toward drupal7 that offers this functionality? Or hand off maintenance of their module to someone else, or officially retire/abandon their module to make room for one of the others to become a solution that others can rally around.

Thinks about it.
see also http://drupal.org/node/79730

Comments

tobias’s picture

tobias commented

Hey Gregory -

I hear ya. :) Have you seen this thread where the dev behind this module has explained his thinking: http://groups.drupal.org/node/42688

Cheers,

Tobias

kyle_mathews’s picture

kyle_mathews commented

OG Mailinglist goes far beyond what Mail to OG or og_mailhandler does. It let's you create a site along the lines of Yahoo or Google Groups. So yes, OGM does post to groups from email but it also posts comments and sends out emails. See http://groups.drupal.org/node/42688 for more details about what OGM does.

I'd be happy to collaborate with the other developers however as the problem space we're attacking overlaps a fair bit.

Not sure what the last link was -- it goes to a random forum post? Did you paste the wrong link by accident?

tobias’s picture

tobias commented

One more thought before I go to bed (in Berlin) - mail2og went part of the way towards addressing what og_mailinglist does, and I liked where it was headed. However, despite repeated attempts to contact arthurf I have never seen a sign of life from him in the project since last September or so. I think the project is dead?

It would indeed be great to collaborate, and I am very eager to see og_mailinglist continue to develop as Kyle has designed it.

But yes - please check out the forum thread at http://groups.drupal.org/node/42688 where this discussion has already been thrashed out quite a bit.

-T

socialnicheguru’s picture

socialnicheguru commented

so can I use og_mailinglist instead of mailcomment and mailhandler?

will this allow me to email to a group and have the content type created for that group? (i think that is correct).
will it allow me to respond to a post like mailcomment/mail2web?

Thanks for the clarification

kyle_mathews’s picture

kyle_mathews commented

> will this allow me to email to a group and have the content type created for that group? (i think that is correct).
Yes

> will it allow me to respond to a post like mailcomment/mail2web?
And yes.

It's meant to act exactly like a mailinglist such as Google groups. You can create / comment on posts through email and the web interface.

kyle_mathews’s picture

kyle_mathews commented
Status: Active » Closed (fixed)

Seems this discussion has ended.