Mailing Lists

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The use of mailing lists is encouraged whenever you have regular mail-outs (ie. daily, weekly, monthly) to a large group of people. Our list software is capable of intelligent bounce handling so that invalid E-mail addresses will be culled after a number of unsuccessful deliveries.

Please Note: The use of mailing lists to distribute E-mail must be in accordance with our Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). The subscribers and moderators on your lists must be aware of it's existence and wish to receive e-mail via the list. No exception. Contravening our AUP will result in decisive action by us affecting not only your list but all services with us.

Contents

Setting up a Mailing List

From the Mail Admin menu on the left, click on [Mailing List] -> [Add] and you will be taken to the mailing list form. Fill in the required information and select the options applicable to your needs. These are explained as follows:

  • List Name: The name of the list you wish to use. Example, ideas.
  • Domain: Select the domain associated with this list.
  • Status: Default is Active. Select Disabled if you do not wish to make it active yet. E-mail to this list will be rejected
  • List owner e-mail address: This is optional. It provides a way for people to contact the owner of the list via listname-owner@domain where listname is the name of the list such as ideas.
  • Prefix outgoing subject headers with: If specified, each message going out to subscribers will have the subject line altered to include this prefix. Example, if you specified [test prefix], the message sent to the list with subject of "check this out" will end up looking like "[test prefix] check this out". It is useful for subscribers to quickly determine from the subject which mailing list the e-mail came from.
  • Posting Messages
    • Anyone can post: this should be used cautiously since there is no restriction on who can post
    • Only subscribers can post, all others bounce: most mailing lists use this option. Those who wish to post must first subscribe.
    • Only subscribers can post, all others go to moderators for approval: Same as above except that non-subscribers have a chance at sending e-mail to the list IF at least one moderator approves the message for sending.
    • Only moderators can post, all others bounce:This is a one-way communication list. Subscribers can receive but not send. It is useful for such things as newsletters deliveries. Please note that the moderator who sends the initial e-mail will receive a confirmation e-mail and must confirm it before it can be sent out. This is not moderation but rather confirmation so that no address forgery is possible.
    • Only moderators can post, all others go to moderators for approval: Same as above except non-moderators have a chance at sending e-mail to the list IF at least one moderator approves the message for sending.

  • List Options
    • Replies should go to the original sender: This is the default behavior. When you receive a list e-mail and you hit reply, it goes to the person sending the e-mail instead of the list. We highly recommend you leave this default setting. It gives the poster the freedom to specify where he/she would like to have the reply to his/her message to be sent. If we set it to reply to the list, this overrides his/her setting and thus the freedom is removed. Further more, one might accidentally send a personal reply intended for an individual to the list instead. This can range from extremely embarrassing to very annoying for *everyone* involved on the list. Where reply is set to a list with exceedingly high traffic, it can be costly (in terms of bandwidth) as well. More importantly, There have also been occasions when auto-responders replying to lists. In turn, people replying to the auto-responders' replies. This creates a vicious loop. So again, our recommendation is for you to leave this option as is, inform your subscribers, perhaps in the welcome message, that they should use the "Reply To All" or "Group Reply" button to reply to both the mailing list and the poster.
    • Replies should go to the entire list: When replying to a list e-mail, it goes to the list rather than to the person who sent it
    • Replies should go to the address: If specified, hitting reply causes the message to be addressed to this specified e-mail address
    • Include a trailer at the end of each message: If selected, all list e-mail contain a trailer which you can edit through remote admin
    • Set up a digest version of the list: A digest is a compilation of all messages sent to a mailing list over a period of time. Some users do not wish to receive individual messages but a compilation of messages. These users subscribe to the digest version of the list. Note: for digest to work, the message archives option will also need to be selected. Digest of your list is done when 30 messages, 48 hours, or 64 kbytes of message body text have accumulated since the last digest.
    • Service requests sent to listname-request: If selected, the list will reply to listname-request@domain query. Basically, it is the same as using listname-help.

  • Remote Administration
    • Allow remote administration by moderators: this feature allows moderators to perform various administrative tasks by sending e-mail commands to the list such as: getting a list of subscribers, search subscriber list, and edit administrative text files.
    • Make this a private list: turning on this option means that regular users cannot subscribe to this list. Any subscriptions or un-subscriptions must be done by moderators
    • Remote administrators can request subscriber list and view/search subscription log: through e-mail commands, moderators can request a list of subscribers or view and search a log that contains all changes in the subscriber database, one per line, in order of occurrence. Note: Allow remote administration must be turned on for this to work.
      • example1: to request a list of subscribers on the ideas@example-domain.com, a moderator can send an e-mail to ideas-list@example-domain.com.
      • example2: to view the subscription log of the same list, a moderator can send an e-mail to ideas-log@exmaple-domain.com
      • example3: to search the subscription log for a subscriber with the name of joe or john or josh, a moderator can send an e-mail to ideas-log.jo_@example-domain.com . "_" is treated as a wild card.

    • Remote administrators can edit files in the text directory: through e-mail commands, moderators can edit administrative template files such as headers, footers, help messages, etc.
      • example1: to request a list of files that you can edit from the ideas@example-domain.com list, send an e-mail to ideas-edit@example-domain.com. You will get back a list with the names of the files that you can remotely edit, such as:
        • bottom: bottom of all responses. General command info.
        • bounce_bottom: bottom of bounce warnings.
        • bounce_num: prefix to the list of message numbers that have bounced.
        • bounce_probe: probe message to test if an address is reachable.
        • bounce_warn: warning message regarding bouncing messages.
        • dig_bounce_num: prefix to the list of digest numbers that have bounced.
        • digest: 'administrivia' section of digests.
        • edit_do: prefix with text editing instructions.
        • edit_done: text edit success message.
        • edit_list: this list.
        • faq: frequently asked questions specific to this list.
        • get_bad: in place of messages not found in the archive.
        • help: general help (between 'top' and 'bottom').
        • info: list info. First line should be meaningful on its own.
        • sub_bad: to subscriber if confirm was bad.
        • sub_confirm: to subscriber to request subscribe confirm.
        • sub_nop: to subscriber after re-subscription.
        • sub_ok: to subscriber after successful subscription.
        • top: top of all responses.
        • trailer: added to all posts sent out from the list.
        • unsub_bad: to subscriber if unsubscribe confirm was bad.
        • unsub_confirm: to subscriber to request unsubscribe confirm.
        • unsub_nop: to non-subscriber after unsubscribe.
        • unsub_ok: to ex-subscriber after successful unsubscribe.

          In order to edit any of the files listed above, you send an e-mail to ideas-edit.<filename>@example-domain.com. Then Follow the instruction within the replied e-mail to edit and submit that edit.

      • example2: To request a file bottom to edit, send an e-mail to ideas-edit.bottom@example-domain.com.

  • Subscription Requests
    • Requests to subscribe require confirmation e-mail: when a user sends a subscription request for an e-mail address, the recipient of that e-mail address will need to reply to a confirmation message before the e-mail address can be added to the subscription list.
    • Requests to subscribe require moderator's approval: all subscriptions will need to have moderator's approval before they can be added to the subscription list.
    • Requests to unsubscribe require confirmation e-mail: when a user sends a unsubscribe request of an e-mail address, the recipient of that e-mail address will need to reply to a confirmation message before unsubscribe is successful.

  • Security Options
    • Strip HTML and attachments: this option is selected by default. It means that messages to mailing lists will be stripped of any attachments and HTML content will be converted to plaintext. This is one of the ways in which we can reduce spam and abuse to your mailing lists. If you wish to accept the risk and allow attachments and HTML content, which is not recommended, you can disable this option.
    • Message Size: another way to reduce the potential for abuse of your mailing lists is by controlling the size of messages that get sent to your lists. By default, we set it to be 100K. If this restriction is hampering you, please enter the desired size. Note: max size of a list message can be 2MB.

  • Message Archive
    • Archive List Messages: This option must be selected if digest list is used. Please note that if your list is busy, this will quickly consume your disk quota. There is no facility to delete archived messages at this time. The work around is to delete the entire list and re-setup.


Once you have entered all the required information and selected your desired options, click on [Add/Update Mailing List] to save.

Adding and Deleting Subscribers

To Add Subscribers to a mailing list - from the Mail Admin menu on the left, click on [Mailing Lists] -> [Lists]. This will bring you to the page that shows you all the available lists under your control. Click on the corresponding [Subscribers] or [Digest Subscribers] link depending on what type of subscribers you wish to add. The list of current subscribers will be displayed. You can now enter the e-mail address of the subscriber you wish to add. Make sure that you only have one e-mail address per line. You can subscribe many users as once. That is, if you have an existing list of subscribers from another mailing list and now you wish to use this one, just copy and paste all the users into the text box.

Click [Add/Update Subscribers] button to save your changes.

Please Note: The maximum number of subscribers any list can have is 5000. If you have lists that require much more, we encourage you to consider getting your own mail server dedicated to this task. Our sales team will be happy to assist you.

To delete Subscribers to a mailing list - from Main Menu on the left, click on [Mailing Lists] -> [Lists]. This will bring you to the page that shows you all the available lists under your control. Click on the corresponding [Subscribers] or [Digest Subscribers] link depending on what type of subscribers you wish to delete. This is basically what you see is what you get. So delete the entries you wish to delete and click [Add/Update Subscribers] button to save your changes.

Adding and Deleting Moderators

o Add moderators to a mailing list - from the Mail Admin menu on the left, click on [Mailing Lists] -> [Lists]. This will bring you to the page that shows you all the available lists under your control. Click on the corresponding [Moderators] link. The list of current moderators will be displayed. You can now enter the e-mail address of the moderator you wish to add. Make sure that you only have one e-mail address per line.

Click [Add/Update Moderators] button to save your changes.

Please Note: The maximum number of moderators any list can have is 10. If you have lists that require much more, we encourage you to consider getting your own mail server dedicated to this task. Our sales team will be happy to assist you.

To delete moderators to a mailing list - from Main Menu on the left, click on [Mailing Lists] -> [Lists]. This will bring you to the page that shows you all the available lists under your control. Click on the corresponding [Moderators] link. This is basically what you see is what you get. So delete the entries you wish to delete and click [Add/Update Moderators] button to save your changes.

Delete a Mailing List

From the Mail Admin menu on the left, click on [Mailing Lists] -> [Lists] . This will bring you to the page that shows you all the available lists under your control. Click [Delete] corresponding to the list you wish to delete and confirm your deletion. Please note that all archived messages belonging to this list will be deleted.

Modify an existing mailing list

From the Mail Admin menu on the left, click on [Mailing Lists] -> [Lists] . This will bring you to the page that shows you all the available lists under your control. Under the List Name column, click on the name of mailing list you wish to modify. Please refer to setup a new mailing list for information on the various options you can modify. Once you have made your changes, click [Add/Update Mailing List] to save your changes.

List commands for subscribers

The following e-mail addresses (commands) can be used to invoke specific behaviour. The examples below assumes a list with the name of ideas@example-domain.com.

  • ideas-help@example-domain.com - returns an e-mail with general information about your list including a list of command addresses your subscribers can use to interact with your mailing list.
  • ideas-subscribe@example-domain.com - add the e-mail address of the sender to the ideas mailing list in order to send receive future messages to the list.
  • ideas-digest-subscribe@example-domain.com - if you enabled list digest, then you can use this command address to subscribe to a list digest.
  • ideas-unsubsribe@example-domain.com - remove the e-mail address of the sender from the ideas list to stop the ability to send and receive messages.
  • ideas-digest-unsubsribe@example-domain.com - if you subscribed to the list using digest-subscribe as above, then this command address removes you from the list.
    • ideas-get.12345@example-domain.com - get a copy of the message #12345 from the archive if archiving feature has been turned on.

Allow Addresses

Addresses in this sublist are exempt from the rule that allows subscribers only to post. That is if joe@hotmail.com is not a subscriber but he is in the allow list, he can still post to the list that restricts posting to only subscribers.

Deny Addresses

Addresses in this sublist are blacklisted. That is, they are not allowed to post to the list even if they are subscribed. They are not allow to subscribe if they are not already subscribed. This is useful as a way to ban an existing address or future addresses or to block auto-responders from polluting the list.

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