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Mailing List Management Form

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:

• distribution list
• email alias
• mailing list
• nickname

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. This means that people other than you can mail to the list, since it is centralized, not in your personal address book.
• The owner of a system mailing list can be reached at owner-listname@WPI.EDU
• 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 five forms of mailing list.
  
  
  1. An Open mailing list, by which anyone on the Internet could mail to the list unimpeded.
  2. A Closed list only allows list members to mail to the list. Note that the complete email address of the sender has to be in the list, or the mail will be rejected
  3. A Moderated list will email you a sample of every message sent to the list. If you approve of the message, you simply reply to the sample and it will be sent to the recipients. If you do not, you can just delete the sample.
  4. A Spam Moderated list will only email you a sample when message sent to the list has a probability of being spam. If you approve of the message, you simply reply to the sample and it will be sent to the recipients. If you do not, you can just delete the sample. Other messages go right to the list, like an Open list.
  5. A Majordomo Moderated list is not recommended unless you have experience with Majordomo and are using a mail client that can edit mail headers. You will be assigned a approval word which must be used to mail to the list and by which you could approve mailings to the list. This enables you to protect the list recipients from off topic discussions, spam, cascades, or other mailing list abuses. Please review WPI Mailing List Moderation for more information on moderation. A Majordomo Moderated list has a limit of 40,000 characters per message, to keep list messages under control. A message that is too long will be bounced to 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.

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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. Closed Only list members may mail to the list. Moderated A sample of any email to this list will be emailed to you for review. If you reply to sample, the message is released to the list. Delete the sample if you don't want the message to go to the list. This gives you a simple release mechanism for complete control of messages to the list. Spam Moderated If a message to the list has a spam probability, the message will be sent to you for review. If you reply to sample, the message is released to the list. Other mail to the list will go directly to the recipients and will not be passed for your review. An easier way to block spam is to make the list inaccessible from the Internet (see Access below). Majordomo Moderated This is not recommended unless you are familiar with Majordomo and know you can manage such a list. Note that Microsoft Outlook users cannot manage a Majordomo Moderated mailing list. You will moderate mailings to this list and must approve any messages sent to the list with a mail client that can add a password to the headers of the message. 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.
Access:	WPI only Only email sent from WPI's own mail systems will be accepted. Anywhere Email from all Internet mail systems will be accepted.

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Change Moderation of a Mailing List.

Other than a Majordomo Moderated list, the moderation handling of a mailing list can be changed. To change from or to a Majordomo Moderated list, the only option is to remove the old list and install a new list.

List Name:	@WPI.EDU
Moderation Selection:	Open Anyone may mail to this list and it will go to the recipients unimpeded. Closed Only list members may mail to the list. Moderated A sample of any email to this list will be emailed to you for review. If you reply to sample, the message is released to the list. Delete the sample if you don't want the message to go to the list. This gives you a simple release mechanism for complete control of messages to the list. Spam Moderated If a message to the list has a spam probability, the message will be sent to you for review. If you reply to sample, the message is released to the list. Other mail to the list will go directly to the recipients and will not be passed for your review. This option is only useful if the list is accessible from the Internet (see below) and if spam is a worry.

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

List Name:	@WPI.EDU

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Set a list to accept email from anywhere.

List Name:	@WPI.EDU

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Adjust approved senders to moderated list

List Name:	@WPI.EDU

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Set Tolerance of Probable Spam for a List.

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

By default, PureMessage quarantines messages of 30% probability and above, so your list will not receive such messages unless you opt the list out of the spam quarantine. i.e. if you do not opt out, this is not a meaningful option. You can manage the list's quarantine at http://smtp.wpi.edu:28443/ by logging in with list-name@wpi.edu using your CCC password.

List Name:	@WPI.EDU
Tolerance	default 20% 30% 40%

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Remove a Mailing List.

List Name:	@WPI.EDU

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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.

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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

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Restore former contents of a Mailing List

This function will scan for former contents that may have been preserved in order to repair an editing error.

List Name:	@WPI.EDU

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Transfer Ownership of a Mailing List.

The owner can transfer ownership of the list to a new owner. You will no longer be able to manage the list once you pass on ownership.

List Name:	@WPI.EDU
New Owner:	CCC login name

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Query Ownership of a Mailing List.

List Name:	@WPI.EDU

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Verify the WPI Recipients of a Mailing List.

This form will scan a mailing list and report the addresses which are suspect. In particular, Outlook or Exchange will report that a list is bad if only one of the recipients on the list are not valid. This check will scan the list and try to find the errant members. The recipients must be one per line in the file and only addresses which are @wpi.edu, or have no @ component, will be checked. If the problem is off campus, this process cannot discover the errant address.

List Name:	@WPI.EDU

Maintained by itweb
Last modified: Feb 16, 2012, 11:55 EST

Computing and Communications Center - Worcester Polytechnic Institute
100 Institute Road, Worcester, MA 01609-2280
Phone: +1-508-831-5136 - Fax: +1-508-831-5483 - itweb