Mailman Settings - Public Announcement List Cheat Sheet

From TechNightWiki

Revision as of 15:25, 22 June 2011

Given the large number of settings that Mailman provides I have written up this cheat sheet as a guide for quickly setting up a public announcement list.

Initial Setup

I have split these settings into two lists

• A list of settings for setting up a generic announcement list that whoever is providing the list can set before handing over the list to whoever has requested it

• A list of settings that whoever has requested the list should look at adjusting

For administrators setting up the list

Privacy options...

• Subscription Rules

Advertise this list when people ask what lists are on this machine? Yes

What steps are required for subscription? Confirm

Who can view subscription list? List admin only

• Sender filters

By default, should new list member postings be moderated? Yes

Action to take when a moderated member posts to the list Hold/Reject/Discard

For the people running the list

General Options

The list administrator email addresses. Multiple administrator addresses, each on separate line is okay.

• These email addresses will be publicly available on the listinfo page so you may wish to leave this being set as the default address or at least avoid using personal email addresses in this box.

The list moderator email addresses. Multiple moderator addresses, each on separate line is okay.

• These email addresses will be kept private. Add here the email addresses of the people who will be moderating the list so they can recieve notifications of list subscriptions, emails that have been sent to list but are held for moderation etc.

A terse phrase identifying this list.

• Add a short description that will be displayed on the list of all email lists on the mail server

An introductory description - a few paragraphs - about the list. It will be included, as html, at the top of the listinfo page. Carriage returns will end a paragraph - see the details for more info.

• This will appear on the list info page

Prefix for subject line of list postings.

• You may wish to adjust this as it will appear at the front of all emails sent out to the email list.

List-specific text prepended to new-subscriber welcome message

• This will get sent with emails sent to all new list subscribers

Text sent to people leaving the list. If empty, no special text will be added to the unsubscribe message.

• This will get sent with emails sent to anyone who leaves the list

Non-digest options

Header added to mail sent to regular list members

• This will appear at the top of every email sent to the list

Footer added to mail sent to regular list members

• This will appear at the bottom of every email sent to the list

Every Day Usage

Adding New Members

Membership Management...

• Mass Subscription

In the box under where it says "Enter one address per line below..." add each email address you want to add one by one, hitting the return key after each one then scroll down and click on the button marked "Submit Your Changes".

When doing this for the first time make sure to include the address you wish to send your announcement emails from.

Allowing sending to the list from a specific email address

After having added the email you want to send your announcements from to the list go to the following menu

Membership Management...

• Membership List

Browse through the list until you spot the email address you want to send announcements from.

The box under the column "mod" in the same row as this email address will be ticked. Click on this box to untick it. You will now be able to send announcement emails from this email address.

Unsubscribing Members

Membership Management...

• Mess Removal

In the box under where it says "Enter one address per line below..." add each email address you want to remove one by one, hitting the return key after each one then scroll down and click on the button marked "Submit Your Changes".