Creating and Managing Mailing Lists

The CI uses Mailman software to manage its mailing lists. To create a new mailing list, please use the online request form. The rest of this document describes how to administer lists you own and some common configuration options and settings. You can view all currently publicly listed mailing lists by going to http://lists.ci.uchicago.edu/mailman.

Managing List Settings

You can choose the list you want to manage by navigating to http://lists.ci.uchicago.edu/mailman/admin.

Logging In

Once you have selected the list you will be presented with a screen similar to:

You will need the list password in order to manage the list. NOTE: The list password is different than the password you chose or were assigned when you joined the list. If you can not remember the list password, please email CI Support and we will reset it for you.

Configuration Categories

Mailing list options are grouped into configuration categories. The categories are listed at the top left of the administrative interface:

Some of these categories in turn have sub-categories that are only listed once you have selected the parent category:

The currently selected category is shown in bold. At the bottom of the page are the options in that category. Each option is displayed in its own box and has a link to more information about that option. The option name is displayed in bold in the link:

General Options

Under the General Options category there are quite a few options, most of which can be left with their default settings, but some are worth mentioning.

owner

The owner option defines who is able to make changes to the list options. Owners do not have to be members of the list.

moderator

The moderator option defines who is able to moderate messages. List owners can also moderate messages, but list moderators can not change list settings. Messages most commonly need moderating when a non-member attempts to post to a closed list.

description

This is a one liner about the list.

info

This is a detailed description about the list and its purpose.

Privacy Options -> Subscription Rules

The Subscription Rules category describes who can subscribe and how they subscribe.

advertised

Is this list advertised publicly on the main page. Setting this to No is useful for lists where people won't need to subscribe themselves or where list owners typically subscribe people manually.

subscribe_policy

How people subscribe to the list:

Confirm

An email is sent to the person with a unique URL that must be visited before the email is subscribed. This ensures the email address is valid before subscribing.

Require approval

A list owner must approve the subscription request. No email is sent to the requester to validate the address.

Confirm and approve

Both a confirmation email is sent and a list owner must approve the request.

If the list should be open, as in a user discussion list, setting this to Confirm is appropriate. If the list should be closed and the list membership tightly controlled, as in a list describing a proposal in progress, setting this to Confirm and approve is appropriate.

Privacy Options -> Sender Filters

These options define how messages are sent to the list. You may want to add some emails of list members who have multiple emails and may post from those that are not subscribed to the list.

generic_nonmember_action

How to handle posts by people not subscribed to the mailing list.

Accept

Accept the post. This is useful for lists that should be open. An example of this is the CI Purchasing list. Anyone should be able to post.

Hold

The default is to hold the message for moderation.

Reject

Reject the message and send a message to the sender that it was rejected.

Discard

Discard the message. No message is sent to the sender.

Archiving Options

By default Mailman keeps archives of all messages sent to the list; however, by default these archives are publicly accessible to anyone whether they are a list member or not. If you have a private and closed list you should verify these options.

archive

Whether or not to archive at all. Set this to No if you do not want messages archived at all.

archive_private

Whether or not the archives are accessible by non-list members. Set this to private if you only list members should be able to read the archives.

Moderating Messages

You will be notified via email when messages are being held for moderation. You can also tend to pending requests from the administrative interface.

You can choose how to handle each pending request:

Defer

Do nothing. Continue holding the message.

Accept

Accept the message for posting to the list.

Reject

Reject the message and send a message to the sender that it was rejected.

Discard

Discard the message. No message is sent to the sender.

You can also choose how to handle future messages from this email as well.

-- TiLeggett - 21 Jul 2008