Mail Lists

To set up a new mailing list:

1. Go to your mail manager http://yourdomain.com/cpanel
2. Create a list in Mail Manager by clicking on New List.
3. Add the name of the list. You'll get a message giving you instructions, repeated below.
4. Click edit list and you're asked to add the maintainer, password, and max # e-mails archived.

• The maintainer is the e-mail of the person in charge of the list
• The password is the list password
• Max # e-mails archived is the number of the most recent back-issues to be saved, and sent when someone requests the most recent e-mails sent to your mailing list.
• The mailing list feature is very simple, please keep that in mind. If you require a more powerful listserv program, you should probably look elsewhere. We cannot utilize a robust listserv on our web hosting machines without causing the server's overall performance to suffer.

Mailing List Manager

From the Mail Manager, you have access to Mailing List Manager, also called Xcommand (from the name of the program in UNIX). This is a mailing list administration program.

How to Subscribe to a List

By e-mail: To subscribe to the mailinglist, simply send a message with the word "subscribe" in the Subject: field to the -request address of that list.

To: testlist-request@yourdomain.com
Subject: subscribe

How to Subscribe to the Digest

A digest sends all messages at once, in one big message, rather than sending each one individually. To subscribe the digest, simply send a message with the word "subscribe" in the Subject: field to the following address.

To: testlist-d-request@yourdomainn.com
Subject: subscribe

How to Send an E-mail to the List

To send e-mail to the mailinglist, write to the following address:

To: testlist@yourdomain.com

How to Unsubscribe to a List

To unsubscribe from the mailinglist, simply send a message with the word "unsubscribe" in the Subject: field to the -request address of that list.

To: testlist-request@yourdomain.com
Subject: unsubscribe

To unsubscribe from the digest, write an e-mail like this.

To: testlist-d-request@yourdomain.com
Subject: unsubscribe

How to Administer the List

The Mailing List Manager (Xcommand), available from the Mail Manager(yourdomain.com/cpanel), allows the administrator of the list to:

• Show List of Subscribers
• Show List Log
• Wipe List Log
• Search list of subscribers for a near match
• Directly subscribe/unsubscribe a user

You can get to the Mailing List Manager by selecting the list from under 'Edit List' in the Mail Manager, then selecting 'Mailing List Manager'. You will need to know the Maintainer e-mail and password to administer the list. The results of the commands will be sent to the list maintainer's e-mail address.

To Set-up a Newsletter using SmartList

When you use SmartList to send out an electronic newsletter, you limit the submissions accepted to yourself, and tell SmartList not to accept foreign submissions. Anyone who signs up will still receive the list but now cannot send to it. If you want all your lists to be newsletters, you can skip the delink step. If you're not sure, go ahead and delink this one.

For the list listname

* Edit the rc.custom file and the rc.init file.

vi /home/username/domainname-mail/listname/rc.custom
uncomment (delete the #s) foreign_submit
comment out (precede with a #) foreign_submit=yes

vi /home/username/domainname-mail/listname/rc.init

uncomment (delete #s) foreign_submit
comment out (precede with #) foreign_submit=yes

* Delink the accept file:
cd/home/username/domainname-mail
type

.bin/delink listname/accept

When these steps are completed, the owner may send to the list by e-mailing to listname@yourdomain.com. If anyone else attempts to mail to the list, it will be sent to the owner rather than the link. Since the owner is now the only address in the accept file for the list, no other submissions will be accepted. (You may want to type vi accept to be sure no one else snuck in there.)

Editing the rc.init file means that all lists created thereafter will also function as newsletters. The hard link would have to be broken for rc.init for a particular list to change this without changing this for all other lists also.

How to Subscribe a Pre-existing Distribution List

The 'dist' file is the distribution list -- the list of recipients. To add a pre-existing list of recipients, copy it into the dist file:

/home/username/domainname-mail/listname/dist

You can add a short list by hand or by cut-and-paste. For a really long list, you may want to download the dist file, edit it using a word processing program, save it as text or ASCII, and then upload the edited file.

The following conditions apply:

- One subscriber per line
- Empty lines are allowed
- The mail address of the subscriber must be the first word on the line
- Comments may follow the address (but separated from the address by at least one whitespace character)
-Everything preceding the line containing: Only addresses below this line can be automatically removed is write-protected from changes (i.e. these addresses can never be automatically/accidentally unsubscribed)
- If the line: Only addresses below this line can be automatically removed is not present at all, automatic unsubscriptions to this list are impossible
- New subscribers will always appear on the line immediately following the last filled entry in the dist file.

Some sample entries (the preferred format):

joe@some.where joe@some.where (some comment) joe@some.where
(some comment) (some more comments) Depreciated, but allowed:

<joe@some.where>
<joe@some.where> some comment

<joe@some.where> (some comment)

Not allowed:

(some comment) joe@some.where
some comment <joe@some.where>

Note: adding to the dist file for a list automatically adds to the accept file as well, unless you have turned off foreign submissions.

How to Create a Moderated List

A moderated list means that every submission to the list goes through your list maintainer before it actually gets posted to the list.

(1) First create a file named moderators. It should contain the fully qualified mail addresses of all the moderators for this list (i.e. just local usernames are not sufficient, at least include an @host or host!)

(2) Then uncomment the appropriate moderated_flag line in rc.custom

From then on all mail that does not contain an Approved:
the_address_of_one_of_the_moderators field is forwarded to all the moderators.

One of the moderators should then resend the mail to the list after adding an Approved: his_own_address field to the header (and possibly editing the contents of the mail). It will be no problem if several moderators resubmit the same submission concurrently, since the mailinglist will filter out duplicates anyway (i.e. only the first one will go out and be archived).

More Information About SmartList?

The SmartList FAQ is available at: http://www.animalgenome.org/SmartList/

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