Help for list owners

If you can't find the answer to your question here, ask the list-owners list (please remove '.nospam' from address).

How to add subscribers to an e-list

The easiest way to add subscribers to an e-list is via the Mailman web administration interface. Select your list, authenticate using your list password and click 'Membership management'.

Under 'Membership management' click 'Mass subscription'. A form will appear with several options and two text fields. In most cases, leave the options alone.

The first text box is where you can list addresses to be added. You have two options:

'Subscribe e-mail addresses only'
To do this, just enter e-mail addresses in the text box, one per line - like:
address1@dot.com address2@dot.com
'Subscribe e-mail addresses and real names'
This allows you to keep track of your subscribers a little better. Remember that they can remove their names later - if they want to. For this option, enter addresses as follows:
joe bloggs <address1@dot.com> jane doe <address2@dot.com>

Click 'Submit your changes'. You will be returned to a copy of the membership management page - with a statement about the success or otherwise of your operation. NOTE: You must have the explicit permission of each person that you are adding to the e-list before you do so.

How to remove subscribers from an e-list

There are two ways to remove a subscriber from an e-list. The first method uses the 'Membership management' page at your list's web administration interface. You'll notice that subscriber addresses are listed in alphabetical chunks. Once you've located the address, all you need to do is click the radio button in the column immediately to the left of the address - titled 'unsub' - so that it is unchecked, then head to the bottom of the page and click 'Submit your changes'.

An alternative method is to use the Mailman list subscriber interface. Select the appropriate list, and head to the bottom of the resulting information page. Enter the e-mail address that needs removing in the text box below the Edit options button, then click the button. You'll arrive at a page titled '<listname> configuration for <subscriber>'. To remove the address, enter the list administration password next to the Unsubscribe button, then click it. A page will be returned to tell you that you have been unsubscribed. If you still have trouble, contact the e-list admin team (please remove '.nospam' from address).

What do I do about e-mail error messages?

E-mail errors are relatively common - people forget to update their addresses, or mis-type them... mail servers come and go. If you've never received an e-mail error message from you list, you've led a charmed life. For the rest of us, it's still not that hard. Essentially it is up to subscribers to maintain their subscription - so don't be afraid to dive in and tidy up!

If you consistently get an error message from a single address [and especially if the message is something like 'user not found' or 'host not found'], remove the address from your list.

If you get error messages saying 'operation timed out' or something similar, be a little more patient - but if you get a lot over time from a single address, remove it.

If you get indecipherable error messages, or can't find or remove an offending address, forward a copy of the message to mailman-owner@lists.alia.org.au.nospam (please remove '.nospam' from address) with a note asking for help. We're more than happy to solve, sort out and explain problems!

It is a worthwhile exercise to set up a mail filter to send any e-list administrative traffic to a special folder in your mail - just to avoid confusion, and to track the amount of error messages arriving. If you feel that there are too many at any given time, contact ALIAnet administrative staff.

I want to change list-owners!

Easy - just let the list administration team know - but make sure that the new owner is a member of ALIA. Contact mailman-owner@lists.alia.org.au.nospam (please remove '.nospam' from address) with the following details:

your name and e-mail address
the name and e-mail address of the new owner
the ALIA membership number of the new owner

...and the management team will do the rest. Various files have to be updated, but it only takes minutes.

My list is full of 'out of office' replies. How do I stop them?

You can temporarily stop mail to any subscriber on your list. We encourage people to do this themselves, but its a hard thing to remember to do when you're about to leave the office for a while. As list owner, you are allowed to take steps to ensure that your list isn't clogged by 'out-of-office' traffic. To do so:

Head to your list's web administration interface [http://lists.alia.org.au/mailman/admin/<listname>], authenticate yourself, and then head to 'Membership management'.

Find the address that you would like to hold, using the alphabetical index of subscribers. Now, have a look at the columns to the right of the address. One of them is titled 'nomail [reason]'. Check the box in this column, next to the relevant address, then click 'Submit your changes'. The page will be reloaded, this time with a checked 'nomail' box and an [A] next to it. The [A] simply signifies that the mail hold was placed by an administrator [you].

Finally, you will need to inform the subscriber. Send him or her a polite message, informing her or him that s/he will need to re-activate e-list e-mail when s/he returns. You can send him/her instructions on how to do it without intervention by you [found here], or just ask her/him to advise you on his/her return so that you can remove the hold. As always, if you still have trouble, contact the e-list admin team (please remove '.nospam' from address).

I want to add/remove/manage topics on my e-list - what do I do?

'Scenario:' You own a e-list that has widely-divergent conversations, and subscribers who would like to get some, but not all, of the e-list traffic.

'Solution:' Add topics to your e-list!

Before you start, you need to define your topics and figure out what you want to use topics for.

There are two options here - you can set up a topic that people can subscribe to alone, and receive no other list traffic. Or, you can have a topic that people use to exclude some types of list traffic.

Once you have decided the nature of your topic, pick some key words that will signal whether a post belongs to a topic or not, and decide whether they should always appear in the subject line, in the first line or elsewhere. The subject line is a good spot.

Head to your e-list's web administration interface [http://lists.alia.org.au/mailman/admin/<listname>], authenticate yourself, and then click the 'Topics' link.

First, you'll need to click 'Enabled' at the first question [should topics be enabled or disabled]. Under the heading 'Topic 1' enter the name of your first topic. For example 'ALIA e-list help'.

Next, in the box next to 'Regexp', add the key words you decided upon earlier - one per line. Here's where you enable your topic function [subscribe to this topic only or exclude posts from this topic]. To make your topic 'Subscribe to this topic only', just add the key words as instructed.

To make an 'Exlude posts containing...' topic, you need to enter your key words as follows:

...which is actually a way of saying 'not keyword1', 'not keyword2'.

Finally, you need to add a short description of your topic.

Once you're done, click 'Submit your changes' - and you will have topics!

'Using topics': If you have configured topics on your list and described them well, you should be able to tell your subscribers to head off to their web-based subscription management pages and choose topics as they see fit.

Subscriber-view help for topics is also available, in case you need it. As always, if you still have trouble, contact the e-list admin team (please remove '.nospam' from address).

What do all those options in my admin web interface mean?

Given that Mailman is written by programmers, and not people, some of the descriptions about options that you can set in the web interface are a little obscure.

Fortunately, there's more: Each option has a link to more information available, usually in the for 'Details for list_option'. Clicking the link will lead to a more-complete description of what each option does.

More help can be found at the Mailman FAQ [offsite] or in the searchable, community-driven FAQ wizard.

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