Mailing List Request Forms

From the Andrew Sponsors and List Owners section of the Andrew Mailing Lists web interface, request forms are provided to create and remove a mailing list. In addition, you can request a bboard for your list or a digest version of the list. The following sections discuss each of these request forms.

Creating a Mailing List

Before creating a new list consider the following.

Who should own the list?

The Andrew Sponsor(s) must be a member of the Carnegie Mellon University community. This individual is ultimately responsible for the list but are not necessarily subscribed to or involved in the daily maintenance of the list. The mailing list will be removed when its Andrew Sponsors are no longer affiliated with the university.

Who will maintain the list?

The List Owner is responsible for the daily maintenance functions associated with the list. Depending on the list configuration, this may include approval/disapproval of subscription or posting requests; moderating list activity and handling bounced postings to the list. This individual has access to the list password to make necessary configuration changes. More than one List Maintainer may be assigned for the mailing list.

Consider the following questions about the mailing list participants. As the List Owner, this will help you to better configure the list for your subscribers.

Should anyone be able to subscribe to the list or should the list be closed with a specified group of subscribers? (See Subscribe Policy)
Should posting be restricted to the subscribers or open to anyone? (see Restrict Post)
Should subscribers be free to unsubscribe at any time or is participation required by this group? (See Unsubscribe Policy)
Is this an official list that requires message approval before distributing the information to the mailing list?
If so, you'll want to configure this as a moderated mailing list. This can be done through the configuration file and will require a moderator to approve all messages before they are posted to the list. (see Moderated Lists)
Do you anticipate a high level of posting activity on the list?
If so, consider requesting a digest version of the list. The digest version allows List Members to receive a batch of the messages posted to the original list rather than each one individually. List digests are normally configured to be sent once a day or once a week.

Mailing List Request Form

To request that a mailing list be created, complete the Request a New Mailing List Form at http://www.cmu.edu/lists/. The following information is required and submitted to the Help Center to create the mailing list.

From the Andrew Mailing Lists page, enter your e-mail address and click Enter.
Click Request a New Mailing List from the Andrew Sponsors & List Owners section.
Enter your full name in the Your Name field.

You will be designated as the Andrew Sponsor for this mailing list. The Andrew Sponsor must be affiliated with Carnegie Mellon University. The sponsor does not need to subscribe to the list or handle the daily maintenance but is ultimately responsible for the list.
Enter your e-mail address in the E-mail field.
Enter your phone number in the Your Phone Number field.
Enter the name that you wish to assign to the mailing list in the Requested Mailing List Name field. The mailing list name must be lower-case, alphanumeric and must contain a dash but no other symbols (e.g., test-list).
Enter a brief explanation of the purpose of the mailing list in the Mailing List Description field (maximum of 74 characters). This description will be advertised to possible subscribers to the list.
Specify the category to which this mailing list belongs by selecting one of the Mailing List Category options. The category will be used later to simplify searching for a mailing list.
- Departmental (including the department name)
- Course (including the course number)
- Organizational (professional and student organizations, clubs)
- Other
Enter the keywords that are descriptive of your mailing list in the Category Keywords field. When a user searches for a mailing list, these keywords are used to find matches for the search.
- Acronyms associated with the mailing list, department or group. Also include what these acronyms stand for (e.g., Computer Science for CS etc.).
- Course numbers and names for mailing lists that are associated with a class (e.g., 15-211).
- Words that are descriptive of your mailing list. If the list is for a department, include the department name.
What email address should list owner messages be sent to?

By default, list owner messages are sent to the Andrew Sponsor. If these messages should be sent to someone else, indicate the appropriate e-mail address here.

Note: If you need to change the List Owner e-mail address in the future, you must contact the Help Center at 268-HELP or send e-mail to advisor@andrew.cmu.edu
Who should be able to post to the mailing list?
- Anyone (this denotes a public list)
- Restricted to the following
  
  If you choose to restrict posting, select the posting restriction options to define which individuals should have permission to post to the list. You may select more than one option.
  - Subscribers
    This option limits posting to those subscribed to the mailing list.
  - Carnegie Mellon Affiliate
    This option limits posting to individuals with e-mail addresses affiliated with the university.
  - Another Mailing List
    Enter the e-mail address for another list whose subscribers have permission to post to this list. To enter multiple mailing lists, separate each by a comma. Use this option to restrict posting to a specific group of e-mail addresses. To do this, you must create a "silent" mailing list which is used solely to maintain the list of individuals with posting permissions for this list.
  - The Following Domains
    Enter domain names that have permission to post to the list. Separate multiple domains with a comma.
Enter the full path name of an Existing Andrew Distribution List if you would like to add an existing dlist s the list of initial subscribers (optional).
Enter the e-mail addresses of the initial List Members in the Initial Subscribers field (optional). Separate multiple addresses with a comma.

Note: The Andrew Sponsor is automatically added as a subscriber. If you are the Andrew Sponsor and do not wish to subscribe, you must unsubscribe.
Do you want messages sent to the mailing list to also be posted to a bboard?

If you select Yes to have a bboard created, the bboard name is added as a list subscriber. The list activity then posts to the bboard as well as to the other subscribers and can be monitored on the bboard. The bboard name will be: internet.<list> where <list> is the mailing list name.

Note: Be aware that this bboard is not secure and can be viewed by the campus community. There are no restrictions for posting or reading these bboards.
Would you like a silent list created?

A silent list is automatically named <list>-silent. You cannot post messages to a silent list. If a message is posted to a -silent list, it is sent to the corresponding mailing list. Click here for more information on the use of silent lists.
Select Yes for the Make a Digest Version option to have a digest of this list created.

List Members normally receive each message that is posted to the mailing list. A digest is a separate mailing list. The digest list holds the messages from the original mailing list and sends a batch of messages at one time. List Members normally subscribe to either the mailing list or its digest version. Digests are beneficial for lists that handle a high volume of messages. They are distributed after a specified amount of time or message traffic has been reached.
Click Submit Request to submit the information and have the mailing list created.

The Andrew Sponsor will be notified by the Help Center via e-mail once the list is created.

Removing a Mailing List

From the Andrew Mailing Lists page, enter your e-mail address and click Enter.
Click Request Mailing List Removal from the Andrew Sponsors & List Owners section.
Complete the Mailing List Removal Request Form by entering:
Your name
E-mail
Mailing List Name
Mailing List Password
Click Submit Request.

The Andrew Sponsor will receive a confirmation via e-mail from the Help Center once the request has been processed.

Request a Bboard for the List

Use this form if you did not request a bboard to which list messages would post at the time the list was created.

From the Andrew Mailing Lists page, enter your e-mail address and click Enter.
Click Request a Bboard for the mailing list from the Andrew Sponsors & List Owners section.
Complete the Bboard Request by entering:
Your name
E-mail
Mailing List Name
Mailing List Password
Click Submit Request.

Once the request has been processed, the Help Center will notify the Andrew Sponsor via e-mail.

Request a Silent Mailing List

Use this form to request creation of a silent list to be used with your mailing list. Click here for more information about silent lists.

From the Andrew Mailing Lists page, enter your e-mail address and click Enter.
Click Request a Silent mailing list from the Andrew Sponsors & List Owners section.
Complete the Silent List Request by entering:
Your name
E-mail
Mailing List Name
Mailing List Password
Click Submit Request.

Once the request has been processed, the Help Center will notify the Andrew Sponsor via e-mail.

Request a Digest Version of Existing List

If you did not request the creation of a digest version for your list at the time the list was created, you can still do so later. For more information about digested lists, click here.

From the Andrew Mailing Lists page, enter your e-mail address and click Enter.
Click Request a Digest Version of an Existing Mailing List from the Andrew Sponsors & List Owners section.
Complete the Mailing List Removal Request Form by entering:
Your name
E-mail
Mailing List Name
Mailing List Password
Click Submit Request.

Once the request has been processed, the Help Center will notify the Andrew Sponsor via e-mail.

Last Updated 03/05/01