UK Web Hosting Support

Mailing Lists

Mailing lists enable you to send an email message to a group of users all in one go.

Here you will learn how to:

· Create a new mailing list
· Configure your mailing list
· Add subscribers to mailing lists
· Add moderators to mailing lists
· Add message trailer to mailing lists
· Add, delete or edit exisiting subscribers, moderators and message trailers

To create a new mailing list:

From the "Mail Info" menu select "Mail Info"

From the "Mail controls" page check to make sure you are about to edit the right domains mail settings by using the drop down menu selecting the domain you wish to edit and clicking "go"

Select "New Mailing List" option (found on the right hand side)

Enter a new email address. The users will see this address as the sender. This must be a completely new email address.A comment can be added to help identify this from other mailing lists.

Configure an exisiting mailing list:

Click the name of the mailing list you wish to configure:

The options:

Enter the e-mail address that enables mail list subscribers to report their problems or error messages sending requests to your_mailinglist-owner@yourdomain.co.uk

By default, all messages sent to a list are kept archived. This way, subscribers can later retrieve messages from the archive. For instance, subscribers haven't been following the list for a while, or they just want to see the discussion of a specific question.

You can prohibit the overall access to the archive and authorize only moderators to get at it.

The digest is a special kind of mailing list extension. Instead of sending separate messages, it sends out a collection of messages ordered by digest subscribers collections of messages. Digest is sent out when a predetermined time or traffic limit has been reached. Receiving digest is very convenient for users who want to follow a list, but not to participate in the discussion. Digests contain each message as it was sent out by the list. No editorials, no missing messages. If the list owner has chosen to restrict posts and archive access to subscribers, digest subscribers are automatically given the same privilege. From the subscriber point of view, the digest list for the mailing list your_mailinglist@domain.com is called your_mailinglist-digest@domain.com. You use the same commands to work with digest as you do when you work with the main list. The only difference is that you use your commands with the 'digest' indication.

Check "No prefix" to prohibit adding prefix to the subject line of each message that does not already contain it. If you want the subject line of each message that does not contain it, to include the prefix, place the text in the file DIR/prefix.

Here you can restrict the access to the mailing list archive by allowing only subscribers retrieve the archive. Non-subscribers' requests will be rejected.

Usually an applicant for subscription (your_mailinglist-subscribe@domain.com) is sent a confirmation request. To confirm it, one should just reply to the message. When it is done, recipient's address is added to the database and he becomes a subscriber.
This verification mechanism tests if the person at the subscription address really wants to be a subscriber. You can always include or exclude confirmation from the subscription procedure.

Use this feature so that subscribers do not accidently unsubscribe themselves.

Mailing list users are not allowed to list the addresses of all subscribers. Still, you can allow remote administrator to get it. The subscription log stores entries for each modification made to the subscriber database. Remote administrators can list this log or search it for specific entries. For example, listing this file allows the remote administrator to see recent additions and removals.

In special cases, the list owner may set up the list to be message moderated. On a message moderated list, messages, instead of going directly to the list (to send messages to the list, one must know its name. If the list is called yourmailinglist@domain.com, just send a message to yourmailinglist@domain.com), are sent to one or more moderators. They can accept or reject, but not modify the message. If the message is accepted, it is sent to the list unmodified. If it is rejected, it is e-mailed back to the sender, optionally with an explanation from the moderator. On moderated lists it may take a little longer for the message to reach all the subscribers, since it has to be read and approved by at least one moderator before being sent out to the subscribers.

Here, you can allow remote administrators to edit the text files that make up most of the ezmlm responses. Replies are sent only if the target address is a remote administrator. With this switch, ezmlm replies to the -edit command with a list of the files in dir/text/. Only files where editing seems reasonable are included in the list. The remote administrator can edit any file in dir/text/ by sending e-mail containing the new text to -edit.file where ``file'' is the name of the file replaced (edited). In reply to this command, ezmlm sends a message with the file and editing instructions. A ``cookie'' based on the date, file name, and contents of the file is added to the ``Reply-To:'' address. The cookie becomes invalid as soon as the file has been changed, or after 27 hours, whichever is shorter. Also, the cookie cannot be used to edit any other file, even if the other file has exactly the same contents.

Here you can disable posting by subscribers to the mailing list, so they will only receive messages posted by moderators. This is usually chosen to send announcement or notifications where the interaction between recipients is not intended.

If you enable this function, users will be required to request to the remote administrator in order to retrieve mail list archives. Otherwise, archive will be accessible only to the remote administrator.

A remote administrator is an address with the rights to do certain administrative tasks remotely by E-mail. Depending on how the list is configured, remote administrators may have the right/ability to list subscribers, search for subscriber addresses by name, add and remove subscriber addresses and/or edit the texts that are sent in reply to list commands.

Enable this feature if you only wish a limited group to be able to access the mailing list.

You can set up your mailing list to allow posts from subscribers only. In this case posts received from non-subscribers will be rejected and sent back.