Information Center

Using Smart List

Quick Links:
How do I set up a new mailing list?
How do I subscribe to a list?
How do I send an email to the list?
How do I unsubscribe to a list?
How do I administer the list?
I would like to set up a newsletter. Can I get SmartList to do this?
I already have a list of addresses for my mailing list. How can I subscribe the entire list?
How do I create a moderated list?

How do I set up a new mailing list?

(1) Go to your mail manager (http://yourdomain.com/menu)

(2) Create a list in Mail Manager by clicking on "New List".

(3) Add the name of the list. You'll get a message giving you instructions, repeated below.

(4) Click "edit list" and you're asked to add the maintainer, password, and max # e-mails archived.

• The maintainer is the e-mail of the person in charge of the list
• The password is the list password
• Max # e-mails archived is the number of the most recent "back-issues" to be saved, and sent when someone requests the most recent e-mails sent to your mailing list.
  

From the Mail Manager, you have access to "Mailing List Manager," also called "Xcommand" (from the name of the program in UNIX). This is a mailing list administration program.

How do I subscribe to a list?

From email:
To subscribe to the mailinglist, simply send a message with the word "subscribe" in the Subject: field to the -request address of that list.

        To: testlist-request@domainname.com
        Subject: subscribe

To subscribe to the digest:
A digest sends all messages at once, in one big message, rather than sending each one individually.
To subscribe the digest, simply send a message with the word "subscribe" in the Subject: field to the following address.

        To: testlist-d-request@domainname.com
        Subject: subscribe

How do I send an email to the list?

To send email to the mailinglist, write to the following address:

        To: testlist@domainname.com

How do I unsubscribe to a list?

To unsubscribe from the mailinglist, simply send a message with the word "unsubscribe" in the Subject: field to the -request address of that list.

        To: testlist-request@domainname.com
        Subject: unsubscribe

To unsubscribe from the digest
To unsubscribe from the digest, write an e-mail like this.

        To: testlist-d-request@domainname.com
        Subject: unsubscribe

How do I administer the list?

The Mailing List Manager (Xcommand), available from the Mail Manager (domainname.com/menu), allows the administrator of the list to:

• Show List of Subscribers
• Show List Log
• Wipe List Log
• Search list of subscribers for a near match
• Directly subscribe/unsubscribe a user

You can get to the Mailing List Manager by selecting the list from under 'Edit List' in the Mail Manager, then selecting 'Mailing List Manager'. You will need to know the Maintainer email and password to administer the list. The results of the commands will be sent to the list maintainer's email address.

I would like to set up a newsletter. Can I get SmartList to do this?

Sure. When you use SmartList to send out an electronic newsletter, you limit the submissions accepted to yourself, and tell SmartList not to accept "foreign" submissions. Anyone who signs up will still receive the list but now cannot send to it. If you want all your lists to be newsletters, you can skip the delink step. If you're not sure, go ahead and delink this one.

For the list "listname,"

* Edit the rc.custom file and the rc.init file.

vi /home/username/domainname-mail/listname/rc.custom
uncomment (delete the #s) foreign_submit
    comment out (precede with a #) foreign_submit= yes

vi /home/username/domainname-mail/listname/rc.init
uncomment (delete #s) foreign_submit
    comment out (precede with #) foreign_submit=    yes

* Delink the accept file:

cd/home/username/domainname-mail

type

.bin/delink listname/accept

When these steps are completed, the owner may send to the list by e-mailing to listname@domainname.com. If anyone else attempts to mail to the list, it will be sent to the owner rather than the link. Since the owner is now the only address in the accept file for the list, no other submissions will be accepted. (You may want to type vi accept to be sure no one else snuck in there.)

NB: editing the rc.init file means that all lists created thereafter will also function as newsletters. The hard link would have to be broken for rc.init for a particular list to change this without changing this for all other lists also.

I already have a list of addresses for my mailing list. How can I subscribe the entire list?

The 'dist' file is the distribution list -- the list of recipients. To add a pre-existing list of recipients, copy it into the dist file:

/home/username/domainname-mail/listname/dist

You can add a short list by hand or by cut-and-paste. For a really long list, you may want to download the dist file, edit it using a word processing program, save it as text or ASCII, and then upload the edited file.

The following conditions apply:

• One subscriber per line.
• Empty lines are allowed.
• The mail address of the subscriber must be the first word on the line.
• Comments may follow the address (but separated from the address by at least one whitespace character).
• Everything preceding the line containing:
  (Only addresses below this line can be automatically removed)
  is write-protected from changes (i.e. these addresses can never be automatically/accidentally unsubscribed).
• If the line:
  (Only addresses below this line can be automatically removed)
  
  is not present at all, automatic unsubscriptions to this list are impossible.
• New subscribers will always appear on the line immediately following the last filled entry in the dist file.

Some sample entries (the preferred format):
joe@some.where
joe@some.where (some comment)
joe@some.where (some comment) (some more comments)

Depreciated, but allowed:
<joe@some.where>
<joe@some.where> some comment
<joe@some.where> (some comment)

Not allowed:
(some comment) joe@some.where
some comment <joe@some.where>

Note: adding to the dist file for a list automatically adds to the accept file as well, unless you have turned off foreign submissions.

How do I create a moderated list?

A moderated list means that every submission to the list goes through your list maintainer before it actually gets posted to the list.

(1) First create a file named "moderators."
It should contain the fully qualified mail addresses of all the moderators for this list (i.e. just
local usernames are not sufficient, at least include an @host or host! ).

(2) Then uncomment the appropriate "moderated_flag" line in rc.custom.

From then on all mail that does not contain an "Approved: the_address_of_one_of_the_moderators" field is forwarded to all the moderators.

One of the moderators should then resend the mail to the list after adding an "Approved: his_own_address" field to the header (and possibly editing the contents of the mail). It will be no problem if several moderators resubmit the same submission concurrently, since the mailinglist will filter out duplicates anyway (i.e. only the first one will go out and be archived).