The University of Wisconsin-Extension
www.uwex.edu
Home
Contact us
Print
Search:

How To - Overview


Included on this page

What is a Mailing (Mailman) List?

Mailing lists use email to disseminate information and promote discussion. Once you join a Mailman mailing list, you receive email messages for that list in your email inbox. To contribute to the discussion, you send out a single email message which is then distributed to all the other members. Each email list has:

  • an owner - one or more persons responsible for the list.
  • a list address - the email name you send an email message to.
  • the list members - all of the member subscribers contained in the list.
  • an administration email address - the place you send email to in order to have your name added to, or removed from, the list. This may be handled by a mailing list management program or "manually" by the list owner.

The volume and formality of individual lists varies enormously. Usually, you won't be charged for subscription to any of these mailing lists and it doesn't take much effort to add your name.

Setting up a Mailman Mailing list gives you an email address of the form:

  • <listname>@lists.uwex.edu

A special computer processes mail sent to this address, screening it according to rules established for the list. It then distributes a copy of the message to every list member. List owners can manage their lists, adding and deleting list members and making changes to how the list operates with an administrative Web page set up for their list.



Subscribing to a mailing list - process overview

Once you know the name of the list (or lists) you want to join, you need to subscribe. If you saw a list announced somewhere, the announcement probably included subscription information which you can follow. If not, then read on.

To subscribe, send your subscription request to the list's administration address. Administration addresses are just like regular addresses, only they often (except for small, "manually" managed lists) deliver email to a special kind of computer program which adds your name to the list. If the record you found has an address which includes listserv, listserver, listprocessor, majordomo, domo (names typically indicating the software used to administer the list) or -request, then that is the administration address.

To get yourself added to the list, send email to that administration address with just this single line as the message:

  • subscribe listName yourFirstName yourLastName

"listName" refers to the name of the list, and "yourFirstName yourLastName" is your full name. The entire message should be in lower case. Typically, you will receive a confirmation via email within a few minutes saying that your name has been added to the list. Keep this confirmation message, as it also includes instructions on how to get off the list when you want to quit.

Do not send your subscription request to the regular list address. When you do so, your subscribe command is picked up by the system and distributed to all the members of the list as if it were a contribution to the discussion - a good way to annoy hundreds or thousands of people.

(Some list management programs intercept messages sent to the list address that contain words at the beginning of the message that make it appear like a subscription or unsubscription request, to prevent this from happening.) So, as a rule of thumb, before you send off a message to or for a mailing list, double-check the address to which it will go to, even if you have send messages to it before.



Why Use Mailman Instead of an Address Book in Your Email Client?
  • An address book can be used by only one person (though there are ways to share distribution lists or set up global address books). A Mailman list is available to anyone who can send email, but also offers control over who can get messages distributed to the list.
  • If you set up a Mailman list to distribute messages from any of the subscribers, you will have a tool for group discussion via email.
  • Mailman gives many options in areas like privacy, control over who can subscribe, control over who can post, and moderation of postings.


Mailman List Roles

With Mailman, you can be a list subscriber, list owner, or list moderator. You also may take on multiple roles for a list or different roles for different lists. In addition, the Mailman list server at the UWC-UWEX has a system administrator.

  • Subscriber: Someone who has subscribed to a list, receives messages posted to the list, and may also post messages for distribution to the list is a subscriber. Who may post, and how it is done, may be controlled by the list owners. A subscriber has no administrative power over list operation, but can change a few of his or her own subscription settings. For example, a subscriber can decide to receive message "digests" rather than individual postings.
  • List Owner: Each list must have an owner who is responsible for configuration, maintenance and operation of the list. The list owner may establish other owners, and may optionally have others take roles such as moderating the discussion or managing subscription requests. List owners may execute commands for their subscribers including adding and deleting subscribers. Each list must have at least one owner who is a current faculty, staff, or student the UWC-UWEX.
  • List Moderator: List moderators are optional. They are assigned by the owners and can manage list subscriptions and postings.
  • Mailman System Administrator: A system administrator is responsible for the operation of the Mailman list server on which many lists reside. Administration tasks include installation and maintenance of the software and the computers where Mailman runs as well as creation and deletion of the individual lists. The system administrator is also entitled to act as the list owner of any mailing list on the server.


How do You Use Mailman?

Sending mail to list subscribers

When a message is to be distributed to the subscribers of a Mailman list, it must be addressed to the list's address. For example, to post to a list called uwsports, you send mail to: uwsports@lists.uwex.edu

All lists on the Mailman server the UWC-UWEX have email addresses of the form.

<listname>@lists.uwex.edu

Messages sent to these addresses first go to the Mailman server. Mailman receives the message and processes it, checking for errors and following the rules established by the list owners. If a message is valid, a copy is forwarded to each of the list's subscribers.

Changing subscriber/owner configuration options

Mailman performs lots of functions in addition to distributing messages to subscribers. It allows you to do a task, like subscribing to a list or changing how a list works, by going to a specific Web address.

  • Subscribers can do their tasks on the list information page at
    http://lists.uwex.edu/mailman/listinfo/listname/
    where listname is replaced with the actual name of the list. For example, if a subscriber wanted to change his subscription options for the uwsports list, he would go to
    http://lists.uwex.edu/mailman/listinfo/uwsports/
    To learn more, go to Information for Subscribers.
  • Owners can go to the list administration page at
    http://lists.uwex.edu/mailman/admin/listname/
    where again listname is replaced with the actual name of the list.

    The Owners and Moderators Home provides additional information.

  • List owners and moderators can go to their list's moderation page at
    http://lists.uwex.edu/mailman/admindb/listname/
    when there are subscription requests or messages to be moderated.

    List owners can use their owner password to authenticate while list moderators should use their own moderator password. For more information on owner- and moderator-specific tasks, see the Owners and Moderators Home.


* This web site is based on code graciously provided by http://www.washington.edu/computing/ .