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Guide for New List Owners
If you are new to Mailman list management, this page is for you. It
outlines those things you should know in order to get started.
Establish Your List
You can request a list by submitting the approprate Mailman List Request Form.
Allow 2-3 business days for your list to be created. When it is created, you will receive
two messages. The first is an automatic message that is sent when a list is created, the second is
an informational message which will provide more specific information about your list as well as
useful links to online documentation.
Review List Configuration
Once you have your list set up, you will want to see exactly how it's
configured, that is, take a look how it's set up, and what options are
set. To review your list's configuration settings, go to
https://mail.prairienet.org/mailman/admin/listname
where listname is replaced with the actual name of your list.
For example, if the name of your list is gardening, you
would go to
https://mail.prairienet.org/mailman/admin/gardening
and log in with your listowner password . Once you are logged on to the
administration site for your list, you should see the following
configuration categories:
- General Options
- Passwords
- Membership Management
- Non-Digest Options
- Digest Options
- Privacy Options
- Bounce Processing
- Archiving Options
- Mail to News Gateways
- Auto-Responder
- Content Filtering
- Topics
There are also some sub-categories for Membership
Management and Privacy Options that can be
accessed when you enter each of those categories. Browse through each of
the available configuration screens to become familiar with the
configuration options. Click on each option for more information. The Overview of List
Configuration Options and
Configuration Tips for Basic List Types will
give you additional information. Feel free to
email listmgr@prairienet.org if you have any questions.
Get the List Ready for Use
Once you have familiarized yourself with your list's configuration and
options, you will want to set up an info file,
welcome message, and goodbye message.
All of these options can be found in the General Options
section of the administration pages.
Info file
The info file should be a brief introductory description about the
list. It will be included at the top of your list's listinfo page at
https://lists.prairienet.org/mailman/listinfo/listname
where listname is replaced with the actual name of your list.
Welcome message
The welcome message will be added to the generic welcome message from
Mailman and will be sent to all new subscribers if you choose that option.
See the welcome_msg and send_welcome_msg
settings.
Goodbye message
The goodbye message is similar to the welcome message except that, as
its name implies, it is sent to subscribers who are leaving the list. See
the goodbye_msg and send_goodbye_msg
settings.
Subscribe Yourself
When you establish a Mailman list, you are not automatically added as a
subscriber. This means that you must subscribe yourself if you want to
receive messages that are posted to the list. To add yourself to your
list, go to the Membership Management section of your
list's administration pages and choose the Mass
Subscription category. Now is a good time to test your welcome
message so make sure that the "Send welcome messages to new subscribers"
option is marked "Yes" and put your address in the box. If you are just
subscribing yourself, you probably don't need to send a notification of
the new subscription to the list owner so you can mark that option "No".
When finished, don't forget to click on the "Submit Your Changes" button.
Of course, you do not need to subscribe yourself to your list if you
do not want to. Keep in mind, however, that some lists are configured to
only allow subscribers to post messages. If you are an owner of such a
list and do not subscribe yourself, your posts will not be accepted by the
list.
Get Subscribers
As you might imagine, mailing lists need subscribers to be worthwile. How
you get them will depend on what your list is for. If it is for a class or
small group of people, then you can probably tell people about the list in
class, or email them, or even add them yourself. Learning how to add
subscribers is easy.
If your list is intended for a larger body of subscribers, you might
want to post information about your list to a Usenet newsgroup, or mention
it on a Web page.
Subscribers will generally want to know the following information:
- Name of the list
- Purpose of the list
- Restrictions on the use of the list
- How to subscribe
- How to unsubscribe
You're Set!
Once you've done the above, that's pretty much it. The only times you'll
really need to be active as a list owner are:
To learn how to deal with these issues, click on the related links. These
subjects, as well as others, are all covered in Maintaining a Mailman
List.
And if all else fails, you can send email to
listmgr@prairienet.org.
Enjoy your list!
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