Mailing List Management Form

System Mailing List Management

These are the functions which this page can perform.

Create a Mailing List
Set a list to only accept email from wpi.edu addresses
Set a list to accept email from non wpi.edu addresses
Set tolerance of the list for probable spam
Remove a Mailing List
Restore former contents of a Mailing List
Replace Mailing List Recipients
This option will completely replace the contents of a mailing list with new contents.
Change a Mailing List
This option will show you the current list contents and let you add or remove individual email addresses.
Transfer Ownership of a Mailing List.
Query Ownership of a Mailing List.
Search the whitepages for the name of a mailing list based on its description.
List the Mailing Lists which I own.
Discover the Mailing Lists in which I am a member.

What is a mailing list?

Every email program has some way of sending email to a list of email recipients by using a single code word used in the place of an email address. Depending on the mail program you use, this feature might be called a:

In this text, the feature will be called a mailing list.

If you are exchanging mail among a small group, each could maintain their own mailing list for the list of group members with ease. None in the group could use another's mailing list, so each one would have to have their own list. If the list is not changing often, though, this is fine.

These personal mailing lists are handy, and can be all you need in most situations. However, if you have a situation where you want several people outside the group to be able to mail to a mailing list, the method of using a personal mailing list is not practical. These others outside the group would not know the group members' addresses and therefore could not construct their own personal mailing list, nor can they access others' personal mailing lists. Also, technically, the personal mailing list is tied to the mail program that a person is using. Someone across the internet may be running a different mailer and could not use the some other mail program's mailing list file even if it was somehow available.

A System Mailing List

This problem is solved by installing a mailing list on the WPI email hub. Being on the mail hub, not in an individual's mail setup, the mailing list is available to anyone on the Internet. We call this a system mailing list. The hub deals with this mailing list the same way, irrespective of the personal mail program that someone might be using.

This web form is designed to let people manage system mailing lists of the form listname@WPI.EDU

A system mailing list resides on the campus email hub, smtp.WPI.EDU. This means that people other than you can mail to the list, since it is centralized, not in your personal address book.
Mail sent to the mailing list will only show the list name in the To: line in the headers; it will not list the individual recipients' addresses.
There are three forms of mailing list.
1. An open mailing list, by which anyone on the Internet could mail to the list unimpeded.
2. A moderated mailing list, in which you control the mailings to the list. You will be assigned a approval word which must be used to mail to the list, even in messages authored by you, and by which you could approve mailings to the list which were authored by others. This enables you to protect the list recipients from off topic discussions, spam, cascades, or other mailing list abuses. *
3. A closed list is like a moderated list, in that it uses the same mailing software. However, it works by only allowing list members to mail to the list. This is something of a control on mail to the list, without requiring moderation of each message sent to the list. *
  
  Note that the complete email address of the sender has to be in the list, or the mail will be rejected. e.g. the email address of login xyz at wpi should be written xyz@wpi.edu in the list of addresses, or else the software will deny delivery of mail from xyz to the list.

* Both moderated and closed lists have a limit of 40,000 characters per message, to keep list messages under control. A message that is too long will be bounced to the moderator (you) for approval. If you approve, it can still go through. If you want to change the limit, you can get the config file, edit it, and put it back in place.

Only use a System Mailing List when needed

Please do not use this form unless it is needed. A system mailing list is only needed if more than a few people are going to mail to the list; especially if people outside the list are mailing to the list. If just few people need the list, it could easily be maintained in personal mailing lists in their own mail setups.

The fact that mail names do not show up when mailing to the list is not a good reason to need a system mailing list, since you could accomplish this by having a personal mailing list but using the mailing list in a Bcc: header. Bcc is a notation for blind carbon copy, signifying that the message will be sent to the recipient, but the recipient will not be listed in the message header. If you do not know how to do this with your particular mail program, please mail to root specifying that you want to use Bcc: and also noting which mail program you use.

Create a Mailing List

A list name must begin with a letter, and may only contain letters, numbers, or dash. A description is required so that the list can show up in a whitepages search and so CCC can know why the list was created.

Yes, CCC will be informed when you create the list and may challenge the need for the list, especially in the case where multiple lists are created by the same person. Mailing lists are an overhead on the mail server, and CCC reserves editorial control over the list names when, in CCC judgement, there are too many lists. Please use this list assignment freedom wisely.

List Name:	@WPI.EDU
List Description:
Initial Recipients:	The initial recipients list should be completed with one email address per line. You must supply recipients at this time. If this mailing list is for a course, and you would like the list populated with the email addresses from the classlist, fill in the term and course name below. In this case, note that the Initial Recipients will be addresses in addition to the addresses collected by the classlist program. For this to work, you must be recognized as faculty by your whitepages information. If you use this feature, the first three fields must all be completed. The only optional field is section. Term: Major: Course Number: Section: The term is a single letter, the major is two or three letters, the course number is typically all numeric. e.g. for PY2731, the major is PY and the course number is 2731. I suggest not using the section unless there are multiple sections. The usual section naming is a letter and two numbers. e.g. to make a list of students in section 2 in term c you would have to enter a section of c02 above. If you just use section 2, this page would not find any students.
List Type:	Open - Anyone may mail to this list and it will go to the recipients unimpeded. Moderated - You will moderate mailings to this list and must approve any messages sent to the list. We have some hints on moderation which you can review. You will also receive a pointer to these hints by email after you create the list, so you can review it later. Closed - Only list members may mail to the list.
Access:	WPI only - Only email from addresses @wpi.edu will be accepted. Anywhere on the Internet - Email from all addresses will be accepted.

Set a list to only accept email from wpi.edu addresses.

Set a list to accept email from anywhere.

Set tolerance of a list for probable spam.

Messages marked by PureMessage package as having a specified percentage, or greater, will be discarded and not delivered to the list.

Remove a Mailing List.

Replace Mailing List Recipients

Through the use of this page, all former recipients will be removed and the list will consist of only the address you specify here.

There is another way to change the contents of a mailing list, which shows you the current list of recipients, and allows you to edit that list. i.e. it is more incremental change than a complete replacement of the list contents, which this function performs. If you only want to make incremental change, follow this link.

List Name:

@WPI.EDU

Recipients:

The recipients list should be completed with one email address per line. You must supply recipients at this time.

If this mailing list is for a course, and you would like the list populated with the email addresses from the classlist, fill in the term and course name below. In this case, note that the Initial Recipients will be addresses in addition to the addresses collected by the classlist program. For this to work, you must be recognized as faculty by your whitepages information, or you must have clearance from the Registrar to deal with classlist information.

If you use this feature, the first three fields must all be completed. The only optional field is section.

Term: Major: Course Number: Section:

Allow list to become empty. Note: An empty list cannot receive email.

Change a Mailing List

To change the list of recipients in a mailing list, the owner must supply the list name. The current list of recipients will be displayed and the owner can edit that list.

List Name:	@WPI.EDU

List Name:	@WPI.EDU
Username of New Owner: