Mailing list information

Why use Old Dominion University's Mailman?

• faster response
• help is only an e-mail or phone call away
• bounced mail is handled automatically
• users can control their own subscriptions
• easier to manage than a simple distribution list for large groups of recipients

Special features of Mailman

• Web Interface: a full interface to the management side of the list
• list configuration parameters are easily adjustable
• intuitive interface
• context help
• password access (with changeable password!)
• administrative requests (posts when moderated, subscriptions when closed, etc. are easily processed via the web interface
• e-mail notification-only of subscribes and unsubscribes

List Posting Features

• "moderated" list posting must be approved by the moderator
• ability to restrict posts to list members
• support for posts by selected members without approval even when moderated
• ability to hide sender
• special SPAM reducing options
• administrative request filters

Archives

• fully web-accessible threaded archives
• support for different archiving intervals
• support for password-authenticated private archives
• raw-text down-loadable archives

Subscription and membership

• support for closed lists (subscriptions must be approved by the owner)
• support for digest subscriptions (one-a-day and size threshold)
• users can hide themselves from appearing on non-administrator member lists
• ability to limit member list visibility (public, members-only, administrator-only)
• separate configurations system to eliminate prank subscriptions
• easy to mass subscribe users
• easy to view and change subscriptions status and type for all members
• double-response subscriptions system to eliminate prank subscriptions and incorrect e-mail addresses
• bounce detection with alert and automatic unsubscribe options to detect and respond to invalid subscribed addresses

Other features

• customizable web pages
• customizable subject line markers
• customizable headers/footers on list messages
• customizable list-name capitalization
• support for hidden lists (not advertised on server list index)
• support for "multiple" list owners/administrators

Mailman Features for the Subscriber

• easy to use web interface
• password protection on web configuration options
• subscriber is tracked as an individual user, regardless of the number of subscriptions on the server
• ability to view and modify subscriptions to all lists from a single web page
• new users can subscribe via list-information page
• forgotten password feature delivers a new password via e-mail
• ability to have password and subscription confirmation e-mailed monthly
• subscribe, unsubscribe, and change options via e-mail commands in addition to web interface

Features Being Developed (not yet available)

• list owner must use web interface to approve pending administrative requests - there is currently no way to do this via e-mail
• no support for separate owner and moderator
• list moderator cannot edit the message being approved
• no renewal-notice ability to screen users

NOTICE: Please note that we in ODU LIONS UNIX Support do not maintain mailing lists memberships, only the mailing list system itself. We do not handle unsubscribe requests; see below for the instructions on how to do this. If you experience problems unsubscribing yourself, you must e-mail the list owner, whose address is usually listname-owner@list.odu.edu.

Frequently Asked Questions

On a monthly basis, our Mailman email list software sends out a reminder of what lists you are subscribed to and the passwords for those lists. If you received one of these reminder messages and you wish to unsubscribe, here's what to do.

Q. What is this e-mail I received from mailman-owner@list.odu.edu entitled "list.odu.edu mailing list memberships reminder"?

A. The ODU mailing list software, Mailman, sends monthly reminders to all subscribers. This reminder shows you what lists you are subscribed to, and what your passwords on those lists are. Our old software, Majordomo, did not send reminders. If the list name ends in "-l" it's very possible that your subscription is several years old.

Q. This is SPAM!

A. You're receiving this because you at some time subscribed or were subscribed to an ODU mailing list in affiliation with a university related activity.

Q How do I unsubscribe?

A. The directions to unsubscribe are in the e-mail notice you received. In any event, you may unsubscribe by going to the URL (web address) given in the e-mail (in some e-mail clients, simply clicking on the URL will launch a web browser and go to the address) and entering your password, which was included the same e-mail that was sent to you, in the unsubscribe dialog box and clicking on the unsubscribe button. You may also unsubscribe yourself by sending an e-mail to the "-request" version of the list name: listname-request@list.odu.edu with the text "unsubscribe password" in the subject. Of course, replace listname and password with the name of the list you wish to unsubscribe from and the password for that list, respectively. If you do not know your password, you may have it e-mailed to you by visiting http://list.odu.edu/listinfo/listname (replacing listname with the name of the list) and entering your e-mail address at the bottom of the page to edit your list options. You will see an option to unsubscribe as well as have your password e-mailed to you.

Q. My e-mail address has changed, how do I update my mailman mailing list subscriptions?

A. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to change your e-mail address on a list. That functionality will be in future versions of the mailman software. You must do one of two things:

1. Unsubscribe the old e-mail address by following the instructions above and resubscribe under the new e-mail address by sending an e-mail from your new address to the '-request' version of the list name as shown below: listname-request@list.odu.edu with the text "subscribe" as the "Subject". Remember to replace listname with the name of the list you wish to subscribe to.
2. E-mail the owner for the list you wish to change your address on and have them unsubscribe and resubscribe you.

Q. I'm a list administrator, how do I delete my list?

A. There currently isn't an automated process for deleting a list. The developers of Mailman are have that in their TODO list. Currently the process of getting a list deleted is as follows:

1. Send an email to unixhelp@odu.edu

   You will receive an ID from our helpmail system. A member of Unix Support will reply to your email informing you that in order to complete the deletion process they will be emailing the list administrator to confirm that they DO infact want to delete the list in question.

2. Reply with "yes" to confirm the deletion of your list when you receive a confirmation email from a USG member.

The USG memeber will then take care of deleting your list and inform you when it is deleted.

Q.How do I set member options via email?

A.Setting member options via e-mail requires that the user be authenticated by a separate command prior to the set commands. E.g the above is done by

set authenticate <password> [address=<address>]
set delivery off

Since it is more than one command, at most, the first command can be in the message subject, the rest need to be in the message body.

The command in the message subject:

set help

which doesn't require authentication can be used to get the list of set commands and their syntax.

Q. My question isn't answered here and/or this doesn't seem to apply to me. What do I do now?

A. We apologize for the "standardized" response as we get a lot of these questions. For more information, please visit the GNU's Mailman mailing list home page at

http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/faq.html

If your question still isn't answered, please send email to unixhelp@odu.edu, and help us correct this document. Thanks!