The problem with adding, say, a slider control for Mailing Lists when adding/editing a User is that it can get terribly unwieldy for domains that have hundreds of lists. We have something similar in SmarterTrack for adding permissions to KBs and KB folders and, to be honest, when you have a large number of KB folders, and those folders have sub-folders, it gets a bit difficult to use.
Using the API is really the best way of automating this as you can automate the entire user process, including adding them as subscribers to one or more mailing lists. So Sebastien's reply is the way to do it.
Derek Curtis
COO
SmarterTools Inc.
www.smartertools.com