CAMail: List Administrator’s Guide to Using Mailman

List Administrator’s Guide to Using Mailman

This document is for Mailman list administrators on the Central Administration lists (CALists) system. The scope of this document is not to itemize all of Mailman’s features, but to delineate some of the more commonly used features. Any users of the CAMail system can request a mailing list on the CALists system by contacting the UIS Help Desk at (617) 496-2001 or by sending electronic mail from your CAMail account to uis_helpdesk@harvard.edu.

Table of Contents

Logging into the Web Administrative Interface

List Subscription Management

Adding a series of addresses

Listing currently subscribed addresses

Removing currently subscribed addresses

Setting subscription options for the list

Restricting Postings

Altering moderation policies

Approving Moderated Postings

Allowing for List Aliases or Blind Carbon Copy of Lists

Owner and Moderator Responsibilities

Mailman Administrators’ Frequently Asked Questions

Logging into the Web Administrative Interface

Mailman has a completely web-driven administrative interface. List administrators should use this interface when making changes to lists. Mailman has a limited number of administrative functions that work through electronic mail.

When the UIS Help Desk creates your mailing list, the Mailman system will send an e-mail message to the person requested as the owner of the list. The Help Desk will usually assign a list management password if the requestor did not provide one. The mailing list administrators can change this password at any time through the web administrative interface. Please note that Mailman encrypts passwords inside of the application so the UIS Help Desk cannot retrieve lost passwords; they can only assign the owner a new one!

The URL to which list administrators should log into is:

http://calists.harvard.edu/mailman/admin/listname

where listname is the name of the mailing list. You will need a browser capable of supporting cookies to access the Mailman administrative interface. The password that you should enter is the password for the mailing list, not any of the passwords for individual subscriptions.

List Subscription Management

The list administrator can add and remove list subscribers individually or in bulk through the web administrative interface. The administrator can also change the subscription settings for a particular user, such as the ability to receive list digests or temporarily suspending a user. In addition, the list administrator can change the settings for users’ self-subscription and self-removal.

Adding a series of addresses

To add one or more addresses in the web administrative interface:

Click on the Membership Management… link at the top of the page.
Click on the Mass Subscription link that will be under the Membership Management link after the screen refreshes.
You will now see various options for subscribing a list of new addresses. Scroll down to the Subscribe these users now or invite them? item. Beside this question are two radio buttons. To simply add people to the list, click the button beside the subscribe label. To have Mailman send e-mail to each subscriber asking him or her to subscribe individually to the list (i.e. they will not be list members until they take action), click the radio button beside the invite label. The default is to subscribe.
Check the settings beside the Send welcome messages to new subscribees? question. This question asks whether or not to send each new list subscriber an e-mail message welcoming him or her to the list. This welcome message will provide the subscribers the link to the list’s user page plus provide the various user passwords that Mailman will assign to each subscriber randomly. If you are subscribing a large number of people and do not wish for each address to receive a message, click the radio button beside the No choice. The default is Yes. Please note that this setting only takes effect if you choose to subscribe and not invite users in the previous step. Invited users will always receive a welcome message unless the list administrator disables this feature for the list.
Check the settings beside the Send notifications of new subscriptions to the list owner? question. This question asks whether the list owner should receive confirmation e-mail for each subscription. This setting will send one message per address to the list owner, so setting this option for a large number of subscribers will cause a large number of confirmation e-mails to go to the list administrators. To activate this feature and send the confirmation mail, click the Yes radio button. The default is No. Please note that this setting only takes effect if you choose to subscribe and not invite users.
You are now ready to subscribe new addresses. You have two choices for adding users:

If you have a list that you wish simply to cut and to paste into Mailman, you can paste those addresses into the text field labeled Enter one address per line below… E-mail addresses can come in either of the following formats:

e-mail address
”First Last” <e-mail address>

For example:

john_harvard@harvard.edu
”John Harvard” <john_harvard@harvard.edu>
If you have a text file (e.g. one you edit in Notepad) of e-mail addresses, you may import those into your list by clicking the Browse button beside the ...or specify a file to upload field. Navigate to and select the text file when the Choose File dialog box appears on your screen. After you choose the file, the path to the file and the file name will populate that field.

If you choose to send either an invitation to subscribe or subscribe people and send welcome messages, you have the option of adding additional text to each message. You may enter this text in the bottommost field. You may choose to ignore this option.
Click the Submit Your Changes button.
Mailman will add the list your provided to your mailing list. The system will print a list of confirmed addresses and any errors it encountered when the screen refreshes. The screen will refresh when the mass addition is complete.

Listing currently subscribed addresses

To list subscribed addresses in the web administrative interface:

Click on the Membership Management… link at the top of the page.
By default, the list page will show. If, however, you are in another section of the Membership Management pages, then click on the Membership List link.

Please note the display of addresses. For large lists, Mailman will attempt to break up the listings, which it sorts by address, into smaller chunks.

Mailman also offers a search feature for lists to find subscribers. Enter the name or address (partial names or addresses are ok) into the Find member field.

Please note that these listings also give the list administrator the ability to view and to change options for the various list subscribers. The checked boxes indicate which options the subscriber currently has set. For an explanation of the various checkboxes, click the Click here to include the legend for this table link present above the listings. When done altering options, click the Submit Your Changes button at the bottom of the screen.

List owners can also retrieve the membership of their lists through electronic mail.

Compose a message to listname-request@calists.harvard.edu where listname is the name of your Mailman list.
In the body of the message, put who <owner password> and erase any signatures from the message. The <owner password> is the same one that you use to log into the web administrative interface. For example, if your password was “mail4u,” then you put “who mail4u” in the body of the message by itself.

Removing currently subscribed addresses

The list administrator has multiple options to remove subscribers through the web administrative interface.

To remove an address though the subscribed addresses listing (N.B. this method will send a removal message to the address you are unsubscribing unless the administrator has disabled this feature for the list):

Click on the Membership Management… link at the top of the page.
By default, the list page will show. If, however, you are in another section of the Membership Management pages, then click on the Membership List link.
Locate the address you wish to remove from the list.
Click on unsub checkbox beside the address you wish to remove. You may click on multiple unsub checkboxes as long as all the addresses appear on this same screen.
Click the Submit Your Changes button at the bottom of the screen.

To addresses in bulk using the web administrative interface:

Click on the Membership Management… link at the top of the page.
Click on the Mass Removal link that will be under the Membership Management link after the screen refreshes
Scroll down to the Send unsubscription acknowledgement to the user? question. This setting will dictate to Mailman whether or not to send a message to each subscribing address you are removing with information about the removal. The default setting is No. Change this option to Yes if you wish to have Mailman send out these notifications.
If you wish for Mailman to send to the list administrators one e-mail for each address you are removing confirming the removal, click the Yes button beside the Send notifications to the list owner? option. The default setting is No.
You are now ready to remove addresses. You have two choices for removing users.

If you have a list that you wish simply to cut and to paste into Mailman, you can paste those addresses into the text field labeled Enter one address per line below… E-mail addresses can come in either of the following formats:

e-mail address
”First Last” <e-mail address>

For example:

john_harvard@harvard.edu
”John Harvard” <john_harvard@harvard.edu>

Please note that you only need the e-mail address to remove subscribers, not the address and name information.
If you have a text file (e.g. one you edit in Notepad) of e-mail addresses, you may import those into your list by clicking the Browse button beside the ...or specify a file to upload field. Navigate to and select the text file when the Choose File dialog box appears on your screen. After you choose the file, the path to the file and the file name will populate that field.

Click the Submit Your Changes button at the bottom of the screen.

Setting subscription options for the list

Mailman allows the list administrator a fine amount of control over the way that subscribers can add and remove themselves from the list. The default settings for all CALists Mailman lists is to allow users to subscribe themselves through either e-mail or through the user administrative interface, then confirm their subscription. This confirmation can either come through reply e-mail to the confirmation message or through an activation link provided in that confirmation message. This same setup exists for self-removal. The default also does not notify the list administrators of any changes.

To add or remove self-subscription:

Click on the Privacy Options… link at the top of the page.
By default, the subscription settings page will show. If, however, you are in another section of the Privacy Options pages, then click on the Subscription Rules link.
Scroll down to the What steps are required for subscription? question.
Choose one of the options listed by clicking the radio button beside the label. The Confirm option is the default, meaning that subscribers can add themselves to the list only after receiving and performing the directions on their confirmation message. The Require approval option will instruct Mailman to send a confirmation message to the list administrator to confirm the subscribing address for it will become part of the list. The Confirm and approve option combines both of these features. When Mailman receives a subscription request for the given list, the system will e-mail the administrator to approve the new subscriber, then will wait for the new subscriber to perform the confirmation steps before addition.
Click the Submit Your Changes button at the bottom of the screen.

To add or remove self-removal:

Click on the Privacy Options… link at the top of the page.
By default, the subscription settings page will show. If, however, you are in another section of the Privacy Options pages, then click on the Subscription Rules link.
Scroll down to the Is the list moderator's approval required for unsubscription requests?question. The Yes option will instruct Mailman to send an e-mail to the list moderators for their approval of any removals. Mailman will not remove the address until one of the moderators takes the action in the message it sends. The No option is the default, meaning no moderator intervention is necessary for self-removal. Click the radio button beside the option you wish to choose.
Click the Submit Your Changes button at the bottom of the screen.

To activate, deactivate, or alter the welcome and goodbye messages for subscribers:

Click on the General Options link at the top of the page.
Scroll down to the Notifications section of this page.
To add any text to the welcome message, enter the text into the field labeled List-specific text prepended to new-subscriber welcome message. Mailman will add this text to any welcome messages it generates to the list subscribers before its own information informing the user of the URL for their own management and the user password it generates.
To activate or deactivate the welcome messages for new subscribers (can override when doing a bulk subscribe), click the Yes or the No radio button beside the Send welcome message to newly subscribed members? question.
To add any text to the goodbye message, enter the text into the field whose label begins with Text sent to people leaving the list. Mailman will add this text to any welcome messages it generates to the list subscribers before its own information informing the user of the URL for their own management and the user password it generates.
To activate or deactivate the goodbye messages for departing subscribers (can override when doing a bulk subscribe), click the Yes or the No radio button beside the Send welcome message to newly subscribed members? question.

Restricting Postings

Mailman offers a variety of ways to restrict postings to its mailing lists. The list administrators have many choices to both expand and to restrict the list of addresses authorized to post. The method for restricting postings is called list moderation.

When non-pre-approved addresses attempt to post to moderated lists, then the Mailman system will contact the list moderators (or the list administrators if the administrators did not set up a separate moderator address). The moderator can then use the moderator requests page in the list administrator interface to conduct the following actions for the moderated mail:

Action	Effect
Approve	Approve the message’s passage through the list. Mailman will add an “approved” header to the message, but the message will otherwise be exactly as posted to the list.
Hold	Suspend the message in queue until the moderator chooses another action to take.
Reject	Return the message to the original sender, informing the sender that the moderator did not approve of the message.
Discard	Remove the message from the moderator’s queue, but do not return the message to the original sender.

The default for new Mailman lists is to allow only messages from members to pass through unfettered. The system will put all e-mail messages coming from non-member addresses into the “hold” state, by default, until the list moderator approves the message. Please note that Mailman is not aware of any e-mail alias equivalence. If a subscriber subscribes to a list with an alias (e.g. john_harvard@harvard.edu) then attempts to post with a non-alias address (e.g. jharvard@camail.harvard.edu), then all postings from that subscriber should come from the subscribed address.

Please note that members whose subscriptions are in the nomail state are still members of the list and, by default, are allowed to post to mailing lists.

To allow select non-subscriber addresses to post:

Click on the Privacy Options… link at the top of the page.
Click on the Sender filters link that will be present under the Privacy Options header after the screen refreshes.
Scroll down to the List of non-member addresses whose postings should be automatically accepted text field.
Enter the addresses, one per line, for all the non-subscribed addresses that you want to post to the list. If any addresses are present in the field that you wish to leave as authorized, then add the new addresses before or after these on separate lines. Removing any addresses from this listing will remove the ability for e-mail coming from that address to post.
Click the Submit Your Changes button at the bottom of the screen.

Altering moderation policies

To apply or remove list moderation policies to all new members:

Click on the Privacy Options… link at the top of the page.
Click on the Sender filters link that will be present under the Privacy Options header after the screen refreshes.
Scroll down to the By default, should new list member postings be moderated? question.
Click the radio button beside the Yes option to apply all policies to new members, No to not apply these policies.
Click the Submit Your Changes button at the bottom of the screen.

Please note that this setting only applies to new user subscriptions.

To apply or remove list moderation policies to all existing members:

Click on the Membership Management… link at the top of the page.
By default, the list page will show. If, however, you are in another section of the Membership Management pages, then click on the Membership List link.
Scroll down toward the bottom of page. Locate the Set everyone's moderation bit, including those members not currently visible option under the Additional Member Tasks section.
Click the radio button beside the Yes option to apply all moderation policies to existing members, No to not apply these policies.
Click the Submit Your Changes button at the bottom of the screen.

To remove all list posting restrictions (N.B. this setting does not override settings to hold, reject, or discard postings from specific addresses):

Click on the Privacy Options… link at the top of the page.
Click on the Sender filters link that will be present under the Privacy Options header after the screen refreshes.
Scroll down toward the bottom of the page. Locate the Action to take for postings from non-members for which no explicit action is defined option.
Click the radio button beside the Accept option.
Click the Submit Your Changes button at the bottom of the screen.

Approving Moderated Postings

When Mailman receives a message from an e-mail address that does not meet the criteria for automatic posting, the system will apply the list moderation policy. The default policy is to hold all non-automatically approved mail in a pending state until a moderator approves the message. When Mailman has any pending messages, it will send e-mail to the list moderators (or owners if no moderators defined) with the message’s sender, why it held the message, and a URL for the moderators to take action. Mailman will also, by default, send a message back to the original sender indicating the message is in a holding state and allow for its cancellation.

To take action on a single or set of pending messages:

Log into the web administrative interface using the moderator’s password (if set) or the list administrator password.
You will now see page showing you all the pending messages for the list.
Mailman will display the pending messages grouped by the sending e-mail address. The moderator may choose to approve all the messages by a given sender or individual messages from that sender. Please note that you may select multiple groups of messages and different actions for these groups for all groups displayed on a given page.

To approve a group of messages from a given sender, click one of the action buttons beside the group of messages (defer, accept, reject, discard).
To approve a single message, click on the numbered link beside the message listings and select the action you wish to take on that message.

To instruct Mailman to take a specific action on future messages from a given sender, click the checkbox beside the Add <sender’s e-mail> to one of these sender filters. Click on one of the action buttons below that checkbox. This action will add the sender’s e-mail address into one of the filters under the Privacy Options… -> Sender filters text boxes.
Click the Submit Your Changes button at the bottom of the screen.

Allowing for List Aliases or Blind Carbon Copy of Lists

By default, Mailman does not allow postings to a list if the e-mail address of the list does not appear in either the To or the CC field of the posting. This feature helps stave off spam from entering the mailing lists. Some lists, however, will need the ability for a poster to include the list in a BCC or use an alias to a list. Aliases to lists would include @harvard.edu aliases to mailing list names.

To instruct Mailman to accept mail for list aliases:

Click on the Privacy Options… link at the top of the page.
Click on the Recipient filters link that will be present under the Privacy Options header after the screen refreshes.
Locate the Alias names (regexps) which qualify as explicit to or cc destination names for this list text field.
Enter the valid e-mail aliases for this list.
Click the Submit Your Changes button at the bottom of the screen.

To allow for the BCC of a particular list:

Click on the Privacy Options… link at the top of the page.
Click on the Recipient filters link that will be present under the Privacy Options header after the screen refreshes.
Locate the Must posts have list named in destination (to, cc) field option.
Click the radio button beside the No option.
Click the Submit Your Changes button at the bottom of the screen.

Owner and Moderator Responsibilities

For Mailman, the owner of the mailing list is the person or persons responsible for setting the list’s policies in terms of postings, subscriptions, and notifications. The UIS Help Desk will usually designate the person requesting the creation of the Mailman list as the owner unless otherwise indicated. Administrators may change any list parameter and perform all duties of the list moderator. The list administrator can view and change the owner addresses under the General Options link.

A list moderator has the responsibility of approving, rejecting, or discarding posts to the mailing list. When Mailman receives a posting for your list that do not meet a predetermined posting policy (for example, if you receive a list from a non-subscriber when the policy for posting is subscriber postings only), then it will send a notification to the moderator addresses to inform them of this posting. The list moderators may also approve and reject subscription requests to the list. If the list administrator has not set up separate moderator addresses, then it will default to using the defined list owner addresses for moderation.

To designate a separate list moderator:

Click on the General Options link at the top of the page.
Scroll down to the text field whose label begins with The list moderator email addresses.
Enter the e-mail addresses for the list moderators. You may specify more than one moderator address by entering each address on a separate line.
Click the Submit Your Changes button at the bottom of the screen.
Click on the Passwords link at top of the page.
Scroll down the screen and you will notice two fields on the right-hand side of the page labeled Enter new moderator password and Confirm moderator password.
Enter a new password in both of these fields that is not the same as the list administrator password. The password that you enter must be the same in both fields. Please note this password somewhere as UIS is not able to retrieve lost passwords, only reset them.
Click the Submit Your Changes button at the bottom of the screen.

Mailman Administrators’ Frequently Asked Questions

What does “message has implicit destination” mean when I get a moderated posting?

By default, all Mailman lists on the CALists system require the name of the explicit e-mail address (e.g. listname@calists.harvard.edu) to be in either the to or the cc line of a given message before it is allowed to post. Some lists have aliases in the form of @harvard.edu addresses or other kinds of aliases. You may choose to plug all those alias names into the configuration or disable this security feature. Instructions for choosing either setting are in the Allowing for List Aliases or Blind Carbon Copy of Listssection of this document.
How do I open up my list so that anyone can post to the list?

Click on Privacy Options…then on Action to take for postings from non-members for which no explicit action is defined. Click the button beside the Accept option, and then click the Submit Your Changes button at the bottom of the screen.

More information about privacy control is available in the Restricting Postings section of this document.