Introduction
 -About Mailing Lists
 -Key Roles
 -Web Interface Main
  Page

Changing Mailing List Options
 -Basic Options
 -Advanced Options
 -Digest Options

Maintaining & Moderating a List
 -Approving Bounced
  Messages
 -Approving
  Subscription
  Requests

Other Types of Lists
 -Digest Lists
 -Silent Lists
 -Bboards

Frequently Asked Questions

About Andrew Mailing Lists

Mailing lists are groups of people who have a common interest in the topics being discussed via e-mail. Mailing lists at Carnegie Mellon University are administered using a program called majordomo.

Majordomo is a program that automates the management of a mailing list by handling much of the routine maintenance involved. It accepts mail for the list and resends it to the list of e-mail addresses subscribed to the list. Normally, you would interface with the majordomo programs by sending commands to the Andrew Mailing Lists server via e-mail. Carnegie Mellon University has developed a web interface to ease the process of communicating with the server.

Some features of Andrew Mailing Lists include:

• Members of a mailing list can join or cancel their involvement as needed.
• Mailing lists are managed by List Owners who are responsible for configuring and monitoring the activity on the list.

Key Roles

There are three key groups of people related to mailing list configuration and use: List Members, Andrew Sponsors, and List Owners. Their roles are as follows.

• The Andrew Sponsor must be a member of the Carnegie Mellon University community. This individual is ultimately responsible for the list but is not necessarily subscribed to or involved in the daily maintenance of the list.
• List Owners are responsible for the daily maintenance functions associated with the list.
  
  Note: The Andrew Sponsor and List Owner have access to the administrative password for the list. It is critical that this password be kept secure. Inappropriate list activity is the ultimately the responsibility of the sponsor and designated list owners.
• List Members include those who participate in the list discussion via e-mail.

Web Interface - Main Page

The Andrew Mailing Lists web interface can be accessed at http://www.cmu.edu/lists/. Notice that the main page is divided into two key areas for:

• List Members
• Andrew Sponsors & List Owners

The options you use in the web interface are based on the role you take in the mailing list.

From the List Members portion of the interface, users can:

• Browse for a mailing list.
• Perform a basic or advanced search for a list.
• Access details for a mailing list including its description, mailing list address, list owner address and subscribe/unsubscribe policies.
• View current list subscriptions.
• Subscribe or unsubscribe from a mailing list.

The web interface allows Andrew Sponsors and List Owners to:

• Change the list configuration options.
• Request a new mailing list or removal of a list.
• Submit a request for a bboard, silent list or digest version of an existing mailing list.

Last Updated 03/05/01