Mailman Howto

The School of Computer Science offers mailing lists services to approved requests.

If you require a list please send your request to supportscs.carleton.ca

Send an e-mail to list_name-requestlists.scs.carleton.ca with the word “help” in the subject or body of the message.

You have two options:

a) sending an e-mail to that list list_name-requestlists.scs.carleton.ca with the word “Subscribe” in the subject or body of the e-mail. Notes: Send the message from the e-mail account you want to subscribe, The ”-request” must be appended to the list name and is part of the address.

b) using the web interface:

http://lists.scs.carleton.ca/mailman/listinfo/list_name

There are two options:

a) sending an e-mail to that list list_name-requestlists.scs.carleton.ca with the word

b) using the web interface:

http://lists.scs.carleton.ca/mailman/listinfo/list_name

This means that your posting to this mailing list is restricted. It could be the case that:

a) you are not a list member b) the mailing list is set to request approval by the moderator/owner

c) or you are a member but the list is set for approvals by moderators

SCS maintains announcement lists and are used as the official communication medium. Membership is not optional for these. If you would like to know more about the list or how you got on it contact the list owner: list_name-ownerlists.scs.carleton.ca

You have to manually unsubscribe from all lists and resubscribe to all the lists individually. You need to unsubscribe from the e-mail address you are registered with. If you no longer have access to your old e-mail address send a note to the list owners (list_name-ownerlists.scs.carleton.ca) explaining your situation.

Administrator or owner: one or more people in charge of maintaining a particular list

Moderator: limited permissions; but allowed to tend to pending administration requests (subscription requests, and disposing of held postings)

Site administrator: person in charge of Mailman, and at the moment creating new lists

Members or subscribers: individuals who are part of a mailing list

Announcement list: One way communication, only moderators or admins can send messages to the list

Discussion list: Members can send messages to the list. These may be moderated or open

Send an e-mail responding to supportlists.scs.carleton.ca responding the following questions:

* List name. Remember this will be used for the web page and e-mail addresses, no spaces.
* Is it private or public? Would the list name be publicly know?
* Is it for announcements or group discussion?
* Are there any moderators?
* Who can view the subscription list? Anyone, List members, List admin

These (and the rest of the) settings can be modified and should be reviewed by the owner.

Mailman only receives posts from accepted list members and whom are allowed to post messages. Sometimes a person might choose to post from multiple addresses. To avoid multiple subscriptions you can add them to your list of accepted nonmembers. This pre-approves their postings. Log into the http://lists.scs.carleton.ca/mailman/admin/list-name/ administrative page (replace list-name with your list's name) for the list:

1. Go to Privacy options
2. Go to Sender filters
3. Enter the e-mail address(es) in the field: List of non-member addresses whose postings should be automatically accepted. (accept_these_nonmembers). One e-mail per line.

To set your list public or private log into the list's http://lists.scs.carleton.ca/mailman/admin/list-name/ administrative page (replace list-name with your list's name):

1. Go to Privacy options
2. Go to Subscription rules
3. Go to Advertise this list when people ask what lists are on this machine? (Edit advertised) Select Yes for public, No for private

1. Go to

   http://lists.scs.carleton.ca/mailman/admin/list_name

   and Authenticate.

2. Under (main admin page) Privacy options…
   1. » Subscription Rules
      1. Who can view subscription list? set to List admin only
   2. » Sender Filters
      1. By default, should new list member postings be moderated? Yes
      2. Action to take when a moderated member posts to the list. Hold
      3. Action to take for postings from non-members for which no explicit action is defined. Hold
3. Under (main admin page) Auto-responder
   1. Should Mailman send an auto-response to mailing list posters? Yes
   2. Auto-response text to send to mailing list posters. Sorry, postings restricted to moderators and administrators
   3. Number of days between auto-responses 0 (zero)
4. Under (main admin page) Membership management
   1. Set everyone's moderation bit, including those members not currently visible On

Moderator bit on means members posts are subject to moderator approval. Action to take when a moderated member posts to the list = Hold means the administrator has to approve their own posts. Having this bit off for moderators is insecure since e-mail addresses can be easily forged.

In summary to prevent unauthorized people from posting to your list, always have their moderator bit (flag) on. As well as setting Yes to By default, should new list member postings be moderated?

Additional documentation can be found at http://wiki.list.org/display/DOC/Mailman+2.1+Members+Manual