List Owners Guide

1
List Owners Guide

• To Managing Discussion Lists

2
Responsibilities

• List owners are individuals responsible for list
  administration via email requests (commands) or
  web interface. Each mailing list has must have at
  least one primary owner and may have two
  secondary ones. The primary owner will be the
  recipient of all error messages and may set more
  preferences by contacting the system's manager
  these preferences include requests to be copied
  on certain user requests. For example, an owner
  may wish to be notified when someone subscribes
  to his list, or when someone signs off.
• List owners may also issue requests on a users'
  behalf overriding system restrictions set on
  regular users (including disabled commands).
• List owners can change system files such as
  subscribers, welcome, info, aliases, and the
  ignored file. In addition, certain configuration
  settings of the list (how the list operates) can
  be changed by the list owner. The list owner can
  also add/remove moderators, subscription
  managers, and error recipients.
• All administrative commands are author
  authenticated and password protected. These
  commands must be sent from the owner(s) email
  address with the appropriate list password.
  Whenever a message cannot be author
  authenticated, the list's owner and manager are
  notified.

3
List Owner Guidelines

• The list owner is responsible for removing any
  subscriber who posts defamatory, abusive,
  threatening, or illegal material to the list. In
  the case that a list owner fails to remove a
  subscriber posting the aforementioned material to
  a list, SLA headquarters will remove that
  subscriber and list owner from the list. The unit
  will be given one week to choose another list
  owner for the discussion list.
• Provide general support to subscribers.
• Maintain list system files (welcome, info,
  aliases, ignored, subscriber)
• Report any unresolvable errors or problems to the
  Discussion List Manager.

4
List Admin Overview

• The List Administrator menu lets you control all
  of the functions for a single mailing list. You
  can change the mailing list settings, add, remove
  and edit members, create subsets, review
  moderated messages and view the log. All the
  things you can do are listed in the List
  Administrator Main Menu.
• You can edit your mailing list settings.
  ListManager provides many features and options
  with mailing lists. This screen affects such
  things as whether your list is moderated, private
  or open to the public. You can also define
  whether this mailing list is a discussion forum
  or a one-direction "announcements" list.
• You can manage the members of your mailing
  list. You can add, delete or edit members of your
  list. This is also where you define who are the
  List Administrators for your mailing list.
• You can send a message to your list, a subset,
  or several lists at once. You can create a
  message that's in plain text, HTML, or combined
  so that those who can receive HTML see it, but
  those who can't read HTML can see the plain text
  message. You can also purge recipients of
  previous messages from receiving the current
  message, or specify how many recipients out of
  the total possible the message should be sent to.
  
• If you made your mailing list moderated
  (submissions require approval), you would approve
  or reject those moderated messages.
• You can look at incoming or outgoing mail.

5
List Admin Menu

• The List Admin Menu has the following elements
• List Info Clicking this button brings you to the
  Edit Mailing List page.
• Members Clicking this button brings you to the
  Members page, where you can delete, edit or add
  members to the mailing list
• Send Message
• Clicking this message brings you to the Send
  Message page, where you can create a message,
  select the lists or subsets you'd like to send
  to, or purge recipients of earlier messages.
• Moderate Clicking this button brings you to the
  Moderate page. From this page you can read,
  approve or reject moderated messages.

6
List Admin Menu (continued)

• Incoming Mail This button lets you see mail that
  ListManager has received which pertains to your
  mailing list. It is the same page as the Server
  Admin Incoming Mail page, but with the power to
  see only your list's mail
• Outgoing Mail This button lets you see mail that
  ListManager has sent or is sending which pertains
  to your mailing list. It is the same page as the
  Server Admin Outgoing Mail page, but with the
  power to see only your list's mail.
• Enter List Clicking this button brings you to
  the "enter mailing list" page, where you can
  join, enter the mailing or visit, just as a
  regular user of your list would. See "Enter
  Mailing List".

7
Members Menu

• The Members Menu page has the following elements
  
• Member List
• Email Address
• Edit Members
• Delete Member
• Delete All Members
• Create One Member
• Create Many Members
• Clone Member
• Clone Member to Many
• Member Count

8
Member List

• The currently existing Members are listed here.
  Each Member is listed in one line of the list
  box.
• Sort Type
• By default, the member list is sorted by email
  address. However, you can choose to sort the
  member list by any of these methods  
• By email address. By domain (i.e.,
  yourcompany.com). By host name (i.e.,
  mail.yourcompany.com). By root name (i.e.,
  "com"). By join date (i.e. 06/22/97). By
  first name (i.e. "john"). By last name (i.e.
  "smith").
• If you change your selection, press the "show"
  button to reload the page with your new sort
  type.

9
Member List (continued)

• Display Number
• By default, up to 200 members are displayed at
  once. You can choose to display more or fewer
  members at one time if you wish. After you change
  the number of members to display at once, click
  the "show" button to reload the page with your
  new display number selection.
• Email Address
•  If there are any members in the list, the top of
  the 'Edit, create or delete members' page will
  have a text field that will allow you to enter
  multiple e-mail addresses. There is also an extra
  set of Edit and Delete Member buttons next to
  this field that will allow you to edit or delete
  these members directly by entering their e-mail
  addresses. This is much faster than searching
  through the list of e-mail addresses.

10
Member List (continued 2)

• If you have more members on your mailing list
  than can be displayed on the screen at once, an
  extra line will appear, with an "email address"
  field, "alphabetical" field, and "go to" button.
  This allows you to jump directly to a specific
  email address or pattern match. For example, if
  you type "patrick_at_shelby.com" and click the "Go
  To" button, ListManager will jump to a member
  named "patrick_at_shelby.com" or if that name does
  not appear it will jump to the alphabetically
  nearest name. If you are not certain how to spell
  an email address you can enter a fragment, such
  as "pat", and ListManager will go to the
  alphabetically nearest email address to that
  fragment.
• Alphabetical
• With the Go To button, you can jump to an email
  address or fragment (See "Email Address" above).
  Alternatively, you can jump directly to a letter
  in the alphabet. To do this, you pick the letter
  of the alphabet from the list box, and click the
  Go To button.

11
Edit Members

• Edit Members
• There are two Edit Member buttons on this page.
  The one at the top applies to the e-mail
  addresses in the Email Address text field and the
  other applies to the Members List box in the
  middle of the page.
• Clicking this button will bring you to an Edit
  Member page with all the same fields as the
  Create Member page.
• The Members to be edited will be the Members
  currently selected in the Members List or in the
  text field at the top of the page depending on
  which button is clicked. Note You can select
  several members at once and hit the Edit button,
  allowing you to change the settings of any number
  of members in one step. If more than one member
  is selected, the Member Settings page will show
  blanks as the default for each field choice. Any
  field that you change from blank to some other
  value will be applied to all the members when you
  press save.

12
Delete Member

• Clicking this button deletes the Member currently
  selected in the Member List or in the text field
  at the top of the page, depending on which button
  is clicked.
• Note You can select several members at once and
  when you click the Delete button, all the
  selected members will be deleted.
• Delete All Members
• Clicking this button deletes all the Members in
  the Member List.
• You must check the "are you sure" check box for
  this command to work. You will also be prompted
  with a final "are you sure" web page, to prevent
  you from accidentally deleting members.

13
Creating Members

• Create One Member
• Clicking this button will bring you to the Create
  Member page.
• Create Many Members
• Clicking this button brings you to the Create
  Many Members page. From this page, you can create
  many members at once. You will have a field where
  you can enter many email addresses, one for each
  member. Then, you can choose the settings you
  want for these members. When you click the save
  button all of the email addresses you entered
  will become members with the settings you chose.

14
Clone Member

• This button makes a new copy of the currently
  selected member. You will be able to edit all the
  settings for this clone, and when you click the
  "save" button, a new member will have been
  created. All the settings from the selected
  member are inherited by the clone, with the
  exception of the name, email address and
  password, since these are assumed to be different
  for every member. Also, you may override any of
  the settings you wish.
• The Clone Member button is useful if you want to
  create a member with all or most of the same
  properties as an existing member, such as when
  creating a list administrator.

15
Clone Member to Many

• This button makes a new copy of the currently
  selected member and lets you create as many
  members as you like with these settings. You will
  be able to edit all the settings for this clone
  and when you click the "save" button the new
  members will have been created. All the settings
  from the selected member are inherited by the
  clone, with the exception of the name, email
  address and password, since these are assumed to
  be different for every member.
• The Clone Member to Many button is useful if you
  want to create many members with the same
  properties as an existing member.
• The Clone Member to Many button is similar in
  functionality to the "Create Many Members"
  button, except that the settings for the members
  are copied from an existing member.

16
Member Count

• This button will display a new web page, which is
  a total count of members on your list. All
  members, regardless of their status, are included
  in the count. You have the option of grouping the
  member count three different ways by date, by
  status, or by type. Choose the proper grouping
  from the drop-down menu then click the "Member
  Count" button to view those results

17
By Date

• This will display a per-day breakdown on how many
  members joined your list. All members, regardless
  of their status, are included in the count.
• Note When a member unsubscribes they are deleted
  from the database and hence deleted from this
  count. In other words, if 10 people join on
  Monday and two leave on Tuesday, if you do this
  page, you will be told that 8 people joined on
  Monday, since the two that left are automatically
  taken into account.
• Thus, viewing your members in this way shows the
  real growth rate of your mailing list, after
  unsubscribes and removes are taken into account.

18
By Status

• This will display the members with respect to the
  status setting. Typically, the members will have
  "normal" status, however, there may be some
  members on "hold" or there may be members needing
  confirmation ("unconfirmed").

19
Jump Forward / Jump Backward

• If you have more members than can be displayed at
  once, two additional buttons and a selection box
  will appear. These buttons allow you to jump
  forward or backward inside the membership list.
  The selection box lists the number of members you
  want to jump in one step.

20
Create Member

•  From the Create member page you can create a new
  member or edit an existing member.

21
Member Fields (1)

• Member Email
• (required) The Internet email address of the
  member.
• For example john_at_acme.com
• Full Name
• The member's full name.
• For example John Smith
• Member Password
• Defines the login password for this member. This
  is the password the member will have to enter at
  the Enter Mailing List page in order to identify
  themselves as this member. While this field is
  optional, it is required that a password be used
  if this person is a List administrator.
• If this member joined by using email (with the
  subscribe command), their password is blank
  unless the list requires a member have a
  password. In that case, a random password will be
  assigned to the member if the member does not
  select one.
• If you enter the word "random" as the user's
  password, ListManager will automatically define a
  random 5 digit numerical password for this user.
  If you are creating or editing multiple members
  at once, each member will be given a different
  random password.

22
Member Fields (2)

• Status
• Defines whether this person is a normal member,
  meaning that they can participate in the mailing
  list, or if their status is otherwise. The
  different types are
• Normal - A normal member.
• Confirm - The person has requested to join this
  mailing list, has received an email message
  asking them to confirm their membership, but has
  not accepted the confirmation message. This
  person's membership is waiting for be confirmed.
  Once the confirmation message is received, the
  person's type will change to normal.
• Private - The person has requested to join this
  mailing list, but because this mailing list is
  set to private, their request to join is waiting
  for an administrator to approve it by changing
  their membership to normal. A private mailing
  list is one where requests to join the mailing
  list must be approved by a list administrator.
  When a mailing list is set to private, mailing
  list administrators who have Admin Mail set to
  Yes (see below) receive a short email
  notification message for each request to join the
  private mailing list.
• Expired - The member had their membership set to
  expire on a certain date (see below) and that
  date has past, so this person's membership has
  expired and is no longer active. If a membership
  has expired, a list admin may unexpire them by
  going into "Members" then "Edit Member" for that
  particular member, changing the member expiration
  date in the "Subscriber Settings" section and
  changing their membership status to "normal
  member" in the "Security" section.
• Held - The member's email address was invalid, or
  bounced mailing list messages for several days.
  Therefore, their membership was held and their
  mail is no longer sent to their address until
  their status is returned to normal.
• Unsubscribed - The member was a member of the
  list at one time, but has since unsubscribed.
  This may be useful if you are interested in
  keeping unsubscribed members in the database for
  statistical reasons.

23
Member Fields (3)

• Expire
• If set, this member's Status will change to
  expired after the date specified. For example, to
  expire this member on January 1, 2003, you would
  enter "1/1/03".
• Acknowledge
• When a member contributes a message to the
  mailing list, they have the option of being
  notified that the message was in fact delivered
  and sent out. If a member is sending out an
  important announcement, they might want to be
  notified that it really went out. The member can
  set this themselves from the Edit Members
  Settings page, or the Join Mailing List page.
• Approval
• If this mailing list is set to moderate messages
  in some way, the Approval setting gives this
  member the right to contribute messages to the
  mailing list without being moderated. In effect,
  it grants this member a "general approval" to
  contribute without approval any message they may
  write.
• Admin Mail
• Determines whether this member receives email for
  list administrators of list mailing list. Mail
  sent to owner-listname (example owner-jazztalk)
  is distributed to each of the members who have
  their Admin Mail set to Yes. Also, if the mailing
  list is set to private, the Admin Mail setting
  determines whether this member receives email
  notifications of requests to join the private
  mailing list.

24
Member Fields (4)

• Moderation
• Determines whether this member receives email
  notifications of moderated messages to the
  mailing list, which need to be approved or
  rejected. If the mailing list is not moderating
  messages, this setting has no effect.
• Error Mail
• Determines whether this member receives
  notifications of bounced email and error mail
  caused by members of the mailing list.
  ListManager processes these electronic mail
  errors automatically and in most cases a list
  administrator does not need to (or want to) know
  about these bounced messages. However, in some
  situations, a list administrator may want to
  personally keep track of error mail, to see what
  members are causing problems. ListManager
  automatically removes duplicate error messages
  for each day, so that no more than one error per
  day per bouncing user will be sent out as error
  mail. For example, if a user bounces 10 messages
  in one day, only the first bounced message will
  be sent, the other (duplicate) bounce messages
  will not be forwarded. This way, you will not be
  flooded with repeat error mail.

25
Member Fields (5)

• Repro
• This setting determines if this user will get a
  copy of their own postings to the mailing list.
• Yes - Receive a copy of messages they contribute
  to a mailing list when the messages are
  distributed to list (this is the default)  
• No - Do not receive copies of their own postings.
  
• Hold User
• This setting determines whether this member will
  be held if they bounce too much mail. The default
  is yes. Note Automatic holding of members can
  also be disabled at the list and server levels.
• Send Hello Message
• When creating the user, you have the option of
  automatically sending a document to this member
  once they are created. You can select any
  document of type "hello", or elect to not send
  any document at all (the default setting).

26
E-Mail Commands

• Subscribing
• Send an e-mail to Lyris_at_lists.sla.org with the
  SUBSCRIBE command in the body of the message
  Subscribe   listname your-e-mail_address  
  FirstName    LastName
• Unsubscribing
• Send an e-mail to Lyris_at_lists.sla.org with the
  UNSUBSCRIBE command in the body of the message.
• Unsubscribe listname e-mail_address
• Posting to a list
•   Send message to LISTNAME_at_lists.sla.org
• What Lists am I On?
• To find out which lists on our server you are
  subscribed to.  Send an e-mail to
  Lyris_at_lists.sla.org with the WHICH command in the
  body of the message.