Creating and Administering Mailing Lists

Introduction

This page will explain how to perform common administrative tasks in Mailman. While it doesn't cover everything that Mailman is capable of, this page may be useful in getting your Mailman list started.

Complete information about Mailman can be found at http://www.list.org.

Creating a mailing list

Any member of the campus community (faculty, staff, and students) may create a new mailing list, provided that it relates to teaching, research, or administration at the University of Calgary. If you create a mailing list, you will be responsible for configuring it, maintaining it, and dealing with people who abuse it.

A Mailman mailing list is not the only method available for communicating with your colleagues. Consider using your Netscape Communicator address book, or the list features of your favorite e-mail package, as they are easy to set up, and managing a personal list is more straight-forward than a public mailing list. If your electronic communication is generally one-way (for example, announcements), consider building Web pages as your primary communication vehicle. If your goal is to provide many-to-many dialogues and discussions, an Internet newsgroup may be a better alternative.

To create a mailing list, please use our New Mailman List Request Form. You will be asked to specify the following:

1. The name and e-mail address of the list owner (generally, you)
2. The name you want for the list. There are only a few restrictions when naming a Mailman mailing list:
   • The name must contain only lower case letters, digits, and dashes. The list name must end in '-L'
   • For class mailing lists, we recommend you specify the class and lecture in the list name. For example, soci387L02-L would be the mailing list for SOCI 387, lecture 2.
3. A title for the list (maximum 50 characters)
4. An administration password for the list (at least six characters)
5. The type of list - open or closed. Open lists allow people to subscribe and unsubscribe themselves. Closed lists are maintained manually by the list owner.
6. Whether or not the list is to be 'moderated.' A moderated list requires the list owner to approve all submissions before they are sent to the rest of the list.
7. For class lists, the name and section number of the course, and one of the following load options:
   • One-time (list loaded once, and manually maintained after that)Daily (list reloaded every day with currently registered students)
   • None (list will be maintained by instructor and/or students themselves)

Once the list has been created, the owner is free to customize it as necessary. There are dozens of variables that can be adjusted. Hopefully the default configurations of the open and closed lists will be adequate.

Deleting a mailing list

If you are the owner of a Mailman list that you will no longer be using, you can request to have it deleted by using our Request for a Mailman List Deletion form.

We do suggest you back up any archives or subscription lists prior to this.

Administering a mailing list

List Options

Mailman is a very flexible mailing list manager. Depending on the list configuration, the list can require very little administration or quite a lot. Some of the options that the list owner can specify are:

• Open/Closed: Lists can be open, meaning that users can subscribe/unsubscribe themselves; or closed, meaning that the list owner must manually maintain the list.
• Unmoderated/Moderated: Lists can be unmoderated, meaning that any submissions immediately go to all list members; or moderated, meaning that the list owner has to review and approve all submissions before they will be sent.
• Unrestricted/Restricted: Lists can be unrestricted, meaning that anyone (even people who are not subscribed) can submit to the list; or restricted, meaning that only specified people can submit to the list.
• Digested: Lists can be configured to accumulate all submissions for a specified period of time and send them all out as one note. This is useful for lists with a high volume of submissions.
• Archived: List submissions can be archived so that subscribers can retrieve past submissions individually or in bulk.
• Private/Public: The list owner can specify who can view the subscriber list via the e-mail interface.
  

Administrators and Moderators

There are two types of users that can maintain a Mailman list: Administrators and Moderators.

Administrators have the ability to configure any settings in the list's administrative interface, subscribe and unsubscribe users, as well as moderate posts.

Administrators access their web interface by going to:
http://mailman.ucalgary.ca/mailman/admin/listname

Note: There is also a link to the administrative interface located at the bottom of the list's webpage.

Moderators are used to help manage posts. If the list uses any moderation rules, posts must receive approval before they are sent out to list subscribers. Moderators (as well as administrators) can either Accept, Hold, Reject, or Discard posts.

Moderators access their web interface by going to:
http://mailman.ucalgary.ca/mailman/admindb/listname

Administrators can add additional admininstrators and moderators through the administrative interface. In the General Options menu, add the e-mail addresses of people who you wish to be either administrators or moderators in the boxes entitled "Details for owner" or "Details for moderator", respectively. Mailman will send out notifications to these addresses whenever the list requires attention.

Administrator and moderator interfaces are password protected, each using a separate password. These passwords can be set or changed in the Passwords menu of the administrative interface. Note that all administrators share a common password as do moderators.

Membership Management

Administrators can subscribe and unsubscribe users as well as configure specific settings for individual users through the administrative interface. This is done through the Membership Management menu.

Subscribing Members
Subscribing members can be done through the Membership Subscriptions menu. To do this, add the e-mail addresses of the people you wish to subscribe in the subscription box, one address per line.

If you have a list of people you wish to subscribe in a separate text file, you can also upload that, rather than typing them out into the box. To do this, press the "Browse" button and locate the file. When you are finished, press the "Submit Your Changes" button at the bottom of the page. If the list is rather large, you may have to wait a few minutes until they are subscribed.

Unsubscribing Members
Unsubscribing members can be done through the Mass Removal menu following the same steps as subscribing members.

In addition, users can be unsubscribed through the Membership List menu. To unsubscribe a user in the Membership List menu, check off the "unsub" box(es) next to the e-mail address(es) and press the "Submit Your Changes" button when finished.

Note that Mailman accepts the following e-mail address forms in the text boxes and files:

• "First Last" <email@domain.com>
• First Last <email@domain.com>
• <email@domain.com>
• email@domain.com
  

Member Settings
Each member can have their own individual settings in Mailman. These can be set through the Membership List menu. Simply check/uncheck the appropriate settings for a user and press the "Submit Your Changes" button when finished. Members can also configure their own settings through their own user interface.

Privacy

You can access the Privacy Options through the administrative interface to configure settings, including subscription/unsubscription and moderation policies.

Advertised/Unadvertised - Accessible through the Subscription Rules option, this determines whether or not your mailing list appears among the other lists on the University of Calgary's Mailman page: http://mailman.ucalgary.ca

Subscription/Unsubscription Policy - Accessible through the Subscription Rules option, administrators can decide if their approval is required for new subscribers or unsubscribers before they are added or removed from the list.

Member Moderation - Accessible through the Sender Filters option, administrators define whether new member postings are moderated or not, as well as how they should be handled. Also see Member Settings for individual user moderation.

Archiving and Digests

Archiving
Mailman can archive messages sent through your list. This can be useful for members who wish to look back on old messages, especially for new subscribers. Archiving can be set to public (accessible to anyone, even non-members) or private (accessible only to members). New archives volumes can be set to start at yearly, monthly, quarterly, weekly, and daily intervals. You can access these settings through the Archiving Options menu page in the administrative interface.

Archives can be viewed online from your list's main webpage: http://mailman.ucalgary.ca/mailman/listinfo/listname

Digests
Rather than having every message sent to list subscribers, you may wish to send them as periodic digests. Through the Digest Options menu you can set digest configurations such as the volume frequency and size of each message.