MailMan - Management, Setup, and Subscriptions

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This article will cover several topics associated with MailMan which commonly known as ListServs here at KU. These addresses end with @lists.ku.edu.

Administrator Login

In a web browser, navigate to list.ku.edu/admin/[YourListName]
Enter your List Administrator Password in the given field, and click Let me in.
Once successfully logged in, you will be presented with the following page that gives you control over certain functions for the list you manage. You can proceed to one of the other panels below for additional information on specific functions.

If you do not know your administrator password. You will need to contact the helpdesk for support.

Membership Management

From the main Administrative Interface screen, select Membership Management under Configuration Categories.
You are now at the Membership Management section.

Mass Subscribing Users to MailMan

You can subscribe one or multiple emails address to a MailMan list through the following steps.

Select Membership Management from Configuration Categories, and then once the Membership Management page loads, select Mass Subscription.
Enter the email addresses of the individuals you would like to subscribe/invite to the Mailing List, one on each line in the format: Firstname Lastname <emailaddress>. Then, enter any additional text you would like to be added in addition to the message subs

Step #1: Current Subscriber List

To obtain a list of your current members by email send an email with the following contents. If successful you will receive an email with the list members.

To: yourlistname-request@lists.ku.edu
Subject: "who password"

Replace: Yourlistname with the name of your list
Replace: password with your admin password.

Visually your email should look like this with the exception of the from address may not be displayed.

Step #2: Saving .txt file sent via email

To save the email as a .txt file to use for removing members:

With the email open in Outlook, go to File > Save As > and choose the .txt (Text Only) file extension.
Once saved, open the text file and delete all of the text before the first email address and after the last email address.

The list of email addresses can remain the same even though they will have spaces before each address. (Note: This file contains all email addresses for members of your list, including your own. You may want to search for and delete the line(s) with your list's administrators to keep them from being unsubscribe if continuing on to the last section.)

Save that file as a .txt file.

Step #3: Unsubscribe Users - Mass Removal

To unsubscribe everyone using Mass Removal, you’ll need to have the list of addresses that you want to unsubscribe. You can either paste this list of addresses (one address per line) within the menu box within the Mailman Administrator Portal.

Alternatively if you went through and obtained a list of users from the steps above. You can attach the list as either a .txt or .csv file. If a .txt file, then each user needs to be on a new row. With .csv files, Mailman will ignore the first record as it thinks it is the heading.

Within the admin portal of Mailman, go to Membership Management … > Mass Removal.
Note the options regarding whether or not to send a notification.
Either paste the list of addresses into the dialog box (one email address per line) or click on Choose File and find the cleaned-up .txt file you saved.
Click Submit Your Changes.
You should get a confirmation email that the addresses have been unsubscribed.
If you want to double-check, you can click on Membership Management to see a list of all members.

By default, list administrators are not automatically retained or added to a list. You may want to double-check within the admin portal that your list's owners are also listed as members under "Membership Management."

Misc. Setup Options

att00001.txt attachments

You will need to login to the administrator portal first. After successfully logging in follow these steps:

Under Non-digest options, find Footer added to mail sent to regular list members.
Delete all text in the input box, and ensure there are no blank lines/spaces.
Under Digest Options, find Footer added to every digest.
Delete all text in the input box, and ensure there are no blank lines/spaces.

Setting a Welcome Message

You will need to login to the administrator portal first. After successfully logging in follow these steps:

From the Administrative Interface, ensure you are on the General Options page. This is the first page you are presented with when you log in to the Administrative Interface.
Scroll down until you find the heading Notifications.
Under Notifications, look for List-specific text prepended to new-subscriber welcome message. This is where you will type your welcome message to your list subscribers. Under that text box, there will be a selection for Send welcome message to newly subscribed members? Ensure this is selected to Yes if you wish for the welcome message to be sent.

Moderating Mailing List

MailMan uses two types of moderation for mailing lists. The first, Subscription Moderation, determines if you want to moderate who is able to subscribe to your mailing list. The second, Message Moderation, determines if you want to approve and/or review messages sent to the list before they are actually sent.

Message Moderation

Message moderation means messages from any subscribers added after this point will be moderated and will not be immediately distributed.

From Configuration Categories, select Privacy Options then Sender Filters.
Next to "By default, should new list member postings be moderated?” choose Yes.
Next to “Action to take when a moderated member posts to the list,” choose Hold, Reject, or Discard.
Optionally, add a message for any messages that are rejected in the Text to included boxes.
Click Submit your changes at the bottom of the screen.

Subscription Moderation

From Configuration Categories, select Privacy Options then Subscription Rules.
Make a selection for "What steps are required for subscription?"
Confirm: If you do not want to moderate subscriptions requests (default setting).
Require Approval: If you want a list administrator to approve all subscription requests.
Confirm and Approve: If you want a list administrator to approve all subscription requests and require the subscriber to confirm their own email address.
Click Submit your changes at the bottom of the list. Your moderation settings have now been saved and applied.

Subscribing to a Mailing List

Navigate to https://lists.ku.edu/ in a web browser.
Select the list you wish to subscribe to by clicking on its name in the first column.
- If you know the name of the list, you can go to the page directly with the link https://lists.ku.edu/listinfo/listname, where "listname" refers to the name of the list you want to access.
Fill out the form with your desired information Click Subscribe.

Depending on the list settings, one of two things will happen:

You will be subscribed to that mailing list automatically.
A request will be sent requesting that you be added to the mailing list.

Password Recovery

Go to your list's info page. The URL address will be "lists.ku.edu/options/(your list's name)" where (your list's name) will be the actual name of your list.
Enter your email address next to "Email Address:" and click Remind.
You will receive an email with your password.

To log in and update your subscription preferences:

Go to your list's info page. The URL address will be "lists.ku.edu/options/(your list's name)" where (your list's name) will be the actual name of your list.
Enter your email address and password.
Click Log In.
Optionally, do any of the following:
- Update your membership information by entering your new email address and confirming or by updating your name. Click Change My Address and Name.
- Unsubscribe by checking the box and then clicking Unsubscribe.
- Update your password using the boxes under Change Your Password. Note: Never use the password associated with your KU Online ID for other applications, including email mailing lists.
- Change any preferences under "Your (your list's name) Subscription Options" and click Submit My Changes to save.
When finished, click Log out.