History
Majordomo has been in widespread use since 1992, predating the popularity of the web browser, in an era when many people had access to email but didn't have WWW access. As a result, tasks such as subscribing and unsubscribing are handled by sending mail messages, a process that may seem cumbersome today.
There are front-ends, such as MajorCool, to provide a web interface. Many mailing lists still use Majordomo. There is work being done to completely rewrite Majordomo with a focus on keeping the familiar email interface while greatly improving the web interface and other features. This coding effort is referred to as Majordomo 2 and is currently being used by the OpenBSD project among others.
Before Majordomo, mailing lists were maintained manually, with a list owner adding and removing participants by editing a text file. Most, however, moved to commercial mailing list hosting services, often with a stipend of $100 or more paid to the list owner by the hosting service in exchange for the transfer. Most of the hosting providers were subsequently bought out by Yahoo!, and merged into its Yahoo! Groups service.
Read more about this topic: Majordomo (software)
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