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

Mailing List Request Forms
 -Creating a Mailing
   List
 -Removing a List
 -Request a Bboard
 -Request a Digest
  Version

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

Changing Mailing List Options

Each Andrew Mailing List has configuration options that control the behavior of the list. Use the following instructions to customize the options for your Andrew Mailing List to suit the needs of the list.

1. At the Andrew Mailing Lists main interface page at http://www.cmu.edu/lists/, enter your e-mail address and click Enter.
2. Enter the Mailing List Name and Password in the Andrew Sponsors & List Owners box and click Edit Options.
   
   The Mailing List Configuration form displays with Basic, Advanced and Digest sections.
   
   
3. Make the appropriate configuration changes and click Submit Configuration Changes when complete.
   
   Note: Once you have been notified that your new mailing list was created, you should change the owner password under the Basic Options section of the configuration file.

See the following sections for details on each of the options under the Basic, Advanced and Digest sections.

Basic Options

Andrew Sponsor

• One or more Andrew User IDs of the individuals who are responsible for the list. This individual(s) is not necessarily subscribed to the list or an administrator of the list but must be a current Carnegie Mellon affiliate. When the Andrew Sponsor(s) is no longer affiliated with Carnegie Mellon University, the list is deleted. This is a read-only value set when the list is created. List owners cannot change this value.

Modify Comments

• Use this field to record comments on the type of changes being made and the reason for the changes. If more than one List Owner is modifying the mailing list options, it is useful to note the userID of the List Owner making the changes and the date the changes were made.

• This field contains a list of the current List Members subscribed to the mailing list. New List Members can be added by typing their e-mail addresses within this field.
  
  Note: The Andrew Sponsor is automatically subscribed to the list.

Enter the Mailing List Description

• This field contains a description of the mailing list (maximum of 74 characters). The description is required at the time the list is created and is displayed when List Members view a list of available Andrew Mailing Lists.

Set Subscribe Policy To

• Open with Confirmation: allows people to subscribe themselves to the list. The subscriber then receives a reply with an authentication number. This authentication number must be returned in order for the subscription to be accepted. This prevents subscriptions from being accepted without authorization.
• Closed with Confirmation: requires approval by the List Owner for all subscribe requests to the list. The Andrew Mailing List server will send a reply to the subscriber with an authentication number. This authentication number must be returned. Once the authentication number is returned, an approval request is sent to the List Owner. The List Owner must approve the request before the subscription is accepted.
  
• Auto with Confirmation: allows anyone to subscribe anyone else to the list without List Maintainer approval. The subscriber then receives a reply with an authentication number. This authentication number must be returned in order for the subscription to be accepted. This prevents others from subscribing your address to a list without authorization.

Set Unsubscribe Policy To

• Open: allows people to unsubscribe themselves from the list.
• Closed: requires List Maintainer approval for all unsubscribe requests to the list.
• Open with Confirmation: allows people to unsubscribe themselves from the list. The subscriber then receives a reply with an authentication number. This authentication number must be returned before the subscription is canceled.
• Closed with Confirmation: requires List Maintainer approval for all unsubscribe requests to the list. The Andrew Mailing List server will send a reply to the subscriber with an authentication number. This authentication number must be returned. Once the authentication number is returned, an approval request is sent to the List Owner. The List Owner must approve the request before the subscription is canceled.

Is this a moderated list?

• No: Any postings to the list are automatically distributed to the List Members without approval.
• Yes: All postings to the list are sent (bounced) to a specified moderator for approval. For a moderated list, you must supply the e-mail address for directing bounced messages, and the password to be used by the moderator for approving messages.
  
  Note: Multiple moderators may be listed separating the e-mail addresses with a comma. If you do designate multiple moderators, the e-mails generated by the list will be sent to all of the moderators. It is up to the moderators to develop a policy for how these e-mails are addressed without duplicating efforts. If two moderators approve the same message, the message is posted to the list twice.

Send administrative requests to the List Owner?

• Set this option to yes or no. When set to yes, administrative requests sent to the list will be forwarded to the List Maintainer rather than posted to the mailing list. Administrative requests are those that should be handled by the Andrew Mailing List server such as subscribe/unsubscribe requests.

Send subscribe and unsubscribe announcements to the List Owner?

• Set this option to yes or no. When set to yes, announcements of subscribe/unsubscribe requests to an open list are sent to the List Maintainer. They are for informational use and no action is required. This feature may be used to monitor list abuse.

Edit the introduction text

• The introduction text is sent to new List Members if the welcome option is set to yes. The introduction text is optional. If introduction text does not exist, the information file is sent to new members.

Allow the following users to view the mailing list introduction text
This option defines the access level of the introduction text.

• Open: allows anyone to view the introduction text.
• Closed: hides the introduction text from everyone.
• List: allows only List Members to view the introduction text; or, if posting restrictions are defined, only addresses with permission to post are allowed access.

Put the last updated date for the introduction text at the top of the introduction text rather than having it appended with an intro command.

• Set this option to yes or no. When set to yes, the date that the introduction text was last updated is placed at the top of the text.

Edit the Information Text

• Modify the information text here. The information text is sent to new List Members when an introduction file is not present. It normally contains information such as a description of the list, the e-mail address for posting to the list, and instructions on how to unsubscribe from the list.

Allow the following users to view the list information text
Defines the access level to the information text.

• Open: allows anyone to view the information text.
• Closed: hides the information text from everyone.
• List: allows only List Members to view the information text, or if posting restrictions are defined, only addresses with permission to post are allowed access.

Put the last updated date for the information text at the top of the information text rather than having it appended with an info command.

• Set this option to yes or no. When set to yes, the date that the information text was last updated is placed at the top of the text.

Send a welcome message to new members?
Set this option to yes to have a welcome message sent to newly subscribed List Members.

• If introduction text exists, it is sent to new subscribers.
• If introduction text was not created, the information text is sent to new subscribers.

Add the following text at the beginning of every message posted to the list

• Enter the text to be added to the beginning of all messages posted to the list. The following variables can also be used within the text field ($LIST, $SENDER, $VERSION). Each expands to include the text referenced below
  
  $LIST: includes the name of the current mailing list
  $SENDER: includes the sender as taken from the from line
  $VERSION: includes the version of majordomo

  Note: This message fronter will not be added to multi-part e-mail messages.

Add the following text at the end of every message posted to the list

• Enter the text to be appended to the end of all messages posted to the list. The following variables can also be used ($LIST, $SENDER, $VERSION). Each expands to include the text referenced below.
  
  $LIST: includes the name of the current mailing list
  $SENDER: includes the sender as taken from the from line
  $VERSION: includes the version of majordomo
  

  Note: This message footer will not be added to multi-part e-mail messages.

Restrict postings
Use this option to control who has privileges to post to this mailing list:

• Anyone
• Restricted to the following:
  If you select this option, you must select one or more of the following restrictions.
  • List Members: restricts the right to post to List Members only
  • Carnegie Mellon Affiliates: limits posting privileges to e-mail addresses affiliated with Carnegie Mellon University.
  • Another Andrew mailing list: specify a mailing list that contains the list of addresses that should have posting privileges. This may be a silent mailing list (-silent).
  • The following domains
  
  Note: You can select one or a combination of these restrictions. For example, if you select CMU affiliates but not List Members, List Members that are not affiliated with the university will not have posting privileges.

• Type the new administrative password for the mailing list to be used by the List Owner.

Advanced Options

Advertise the list to

The expressions entered for this option determine whether or not your mailing list is included or "advertised" when someone browses or searches existing Andrew Mailing Lists. The expressions defined for the advertise option are compared to the e-mail address provided when accessing the web interface. Expressions entered for this option must be enclosed within slashes (/).

• Leave this option blank for a public list that is advertised to anyone.
• Enter an expression (domain name, word, e-mail address) within slashes. This mailing list will be included when the requester e-mail address matches one of these expressions. For example, if you enter /cmu.edu/ as an expression here; the e-mail address of the requester must contain the word "cmu.edu". If it does not, your mailing list name will not be included. Use this example to advertise your list to Carnegie Mellon affiliates only.
• Type / / for a private list.

Do not advertise the list to

Use this option to exclude your list from being included or "advertised" in search results. The expression entered here are compared to the e-mail address provided when accessing the web interface. If the part of the requester e-mail address matches one of these expressions, your list will not be included in the search results for this individual. Expressions must be entered within slashes (/). Expressions entered for the advertise option take precedence to this option.

Set the maximum message size of "Unapproved" messages

• Enter the maximum number of characters allowed for an unapproved message. If a message exceeds this number of characters, it will be bounced to the List Maintainer for approval before being posted to the list. When used with the digest version of a list, a new digest is automatically generated if the digest size exceeds this maximum value.

Allow majordomo to approximate domain names?

• Set this option to yes or no. When set to yes, the Andrew Mailing Lists server considers the domain address (user@cmu.edu) equivalent to the address for a particular machine in the domain (user@andrew.cmu.edu). This allows users to subscribe/unsubscribe to a list using either address. If this option is set to no, majordomo considers these two addresses as two different people.

When adding address to the list, strip off all comments etc., and put just the raw address in the list file

• Set this option to yes or no. When set to yes, everything but the e-mail address is removed when subscribing to the list. Only the raw address is added to the list of subscribers.
  
  For example, John Doe subscribes to your list as "John Doe <johndoe@andrew.cmu.edu>". If strip is set to yes, he is added to the list of subscribers as "johndoe@andrew.cmu.edu". If this value were set to no, he would be added exactly as shown in the subscription request. Eliminating the comments in e-mail addesses reduces the possibility of delivery errors but leaving them in will assist the user in associating a name with an address.

Set the reply-to header on list messages

Use this option to set the header for replies to list messages. If this value is set to $SENDER, replies to messages from the list are sent only to the person who sent the original message, not to the list address. When this value is set to the name of the mailing list, replies are distributed to the whole mailing list. Be aware that some e-mail clients do not allow users to override this variable. Leave this value blank to limit restrictions on who the user can respond to.

Add the following text at the beginning of the Subject line

• Use this option to define text that is used as a prefix to the subject line of all messages being redistributed to the list.
  
  When users receive messages from the list, the from address is the address of the List Member who sent the original message. You may want to add a prefix to the subject line that identifies the message as a mailing list item. Use the $LIST variable to include the name of the current list.

Add the following message headers to all messages posted to the mailing list

• The text entered in this area is appended to the mail headers of the posted message. Use the following variables ($LIST, $SENDER, $VERSION) which expand to include the text referenced below.
  
  $LIST: includes the name of the current mailing list
  $SENDER: includes the sender as taken from the from line
  $VERSION: includes the version of majordomo

Set the message bounce keywords found in message body

• Type the keywords that, if found in the message body, will cause the message to be bounced to the moderator for review.
  
  Expressions must be typed within slashes (/).
  /keyword/
  
  If you have multiple bounce keywords, each must be typed within slashes (/).
  /keyword1/ /keyword2/

Set the message bounce keywords found in message header

• Type the keywords that, if found in the message header, will cause the message to be bounced to the moderator for review.
  
  Expressions must be typed within slashes (/).
  /keyword/
  
  If you have multiple bounce keywords, each must be typed within slashes (/).
  /keyword1/ /keyword2/
  

List Category

This option contains the category of the list: department, organization, course, or other. This value is set when a list is created and cannot be changed by the List Owner. The web interface will use the category type when searching for a list.

Set the keywords

Enter the keywords that are descriptive of your mailing list. Multiple keywords must be separated by a space . The keywords are used by potential subscribers to search for your list using the web interface. We recommend that you include: associated acronyms and what the acronym stands for; course numbers
(e.g., 15-211); and department names.

Digest Options

The following digest options are ignored if modified for a list that is not a digest version. The digest version of a list is named with a -digest extension and is a separate mailing list.

Change Next Issue Number to

• Enter the issue number of the next digest. This number is automatically incremented when digests are generated. You should reset the issue number to 1 when the volume number is changed.

Change Current volume number to

• Enter the volume number of the digest. The volume number must be changed manually and can be incremented when it makes sense for your list (i.e., monthly, each semester, each calendar or school year). When incrementing the volume, be sure to change the issue number back to one.

Automatically create a new digest when the age of the oldest article exceeds the following number of days

• Enter the maximum number of days that the oldest item in the digest queue must be before a digest is generated.

Set the maximum number of lines to the following before a new digest is created

• Enter the maximum number of lines that the digest queue can reach before a digest is automatically generated.

Enter the subject line for the digest

• Enter the text that should appear in the subject line of the digest (commonly the list name). The digest name is then automatically appended with the digest volume and issue.

Remove the footer text from the following mailing list where messages are posted to the original list

• Enter the name of the mailing list that applies the footer to the messages that are received by digest (normally the original mailing list name). This allows the footers supplied by the original mail messages to be stripped before the messages are included in the digest.

Remove the fronter text from the following mailing list where messages are posted to the original list

• Enter the name of the mailing list that applies the header to the messages that are received by digest (normally the original mailing list name). This allows the headers supplied by the original mail messages to be stripped before the messages are included in the digest.