Mailing List Owner's Manual (old)

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Documentation and Help (old) > Mailing List Owner's Manual (old)

WARNING!

The information in this article is severely depreciated.It is only provided for legacy purposes and is scheduled to be removed. Please refer to the current revised version of this document, if available.

This document is a minimal owner's manual for owner's of The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural,and Environmental Sciences mailing lists. These are minimum instructions, please consult the on-line documentation for more.

For instructional purposes, we will use a list named mylist in our examples. This is not a real list.

How does one subscribe to the list?

Send e-mail to listserver@postoffice.ag.ohio-state.edu with the two line message:

subscribe mylist
quit

The "quit" says to stop processing commands. If you have a signature file, the listserver will try to understand it as commands and send error messages about each line

How does one unsubscribe to the list?

Send e-mail to listserver@postoffice.ag.ohio-state.edu with the two line message:

unsubscribe mylist
quit

How do I manage the list myself?

You will manage your list through a web page. Here are the steps.

1. Open a web browser such a Netscape, and point to http://postoffice.ag.ohio-state.edu:8100
2. Fill in the E-mail username and Password and click the "Enter" button to the right of the password box.
3. At the top of the next screen are six items, Mailboxes, Compose, Rules, Settings, External Accounts and Log Out. Click on "Mailboxes". This page will have the same banner the top, but will also contain a list of your mailboxes like:

   Mailbox            Size     Messages   New
   INBOX              49K      16         16
   MyList (List)      12K       2          2
   MyList/approval     0        0          0
   MyList/reports      0        0          0
   MyList/requests     0        0          0
   

   "INBOX" is any regular e-mail sent to owner-mylist. The other links are:

1. "MyList" is an archive of all your list's messages. (List) is a link to your list's configuration and subscriber list.
2. "MyList/approval" are messages waiting for approval if the list moderated.
3. "MyList/reports" are returned (bounced) e-mail and other error messages.
4. "MyList/requests" are subscription request messages.

4. To manage your mailing list, click on "(List)".

You may browse the complete documentation on-line by clicking on the "Mailing List" link at the top of the page.

In the beginning at least, all you will modify is the list of subscribers. People can subscribe themselves as described above, but the list manager can add and remove people too.

5. Click on "Subscribers" at page center top.

1. To ADD a subscriber: fill in the complete e-mail address in box to the right of the "Subscribe" button, near the top of the page. Click on the "Subscribe" button. A complete e-mail is one like: hlaufman@postoffice.ag.ohio-state.edu
2. To REMOVE a subscriber: Click on the box immediately to the the left of the person address un "E-mail Address". Now, Click on the "Unsubscribe button". Your subscriber list will initially, of course, be empty.

For more information, consult the online documentation mentioned in step 4.

Please read this documentation before attempting to further customize your list.

One easy customization is the list description at the top of the list configuration, where you are in step 4. Enter a short, four to five word, list description.

When you make a change to the list configuration, you must click an "Update" for it to take effect.

*** WARNING ***

Avoid setting "Reply to:" to be the mailing list itself.

Mailing list e-mail headers may be manipulated so that the "Reply"function of e-mail programs will send the message back to the list, rather than to the originator of the message.

While seemingly more convenient this feature is very problematic and puts the list and the subscribers at risk.

We strongly suggest not setting "Reply to:" to be the list itself for the following reasons:

1. A subscriber's auto reply "I am on vacation" message can create a mail loop, burying all subscriber's with hundreds of repeating messages. Mail loops have side effects far beyond the scope of one machine and one e-mail account. Hundreds of accounts on hundreds of e-mail machines can be dramatically and negatively impacted.
2. It adds nothing. There is no increase in functionality over what is already present by standard means. In fact, one could argue that functionality is reduced, since the usual meaning of the "Reply to:" (the author) function is lost.
3. Principle of least damage (and surprise). Replying to correspondence involves the mental process of formulating a response to the author of a message. When one's privately formulated reply goes to several hundred unintended people instead, the result can be devastating, emotionally, socially and economically. This is avoided with a proper "Reply to:" policy.
4. It can break _any_ reply to the author. If the author of a message has already changed the "Reply to:" line to be different from her return address (there are many, very valid reasons for doing so). The second changing of "Reply to:" will obliterate that change, possibly leaving the author unreachable.

E-mail has been handled on computer networks for decades. Accumulated experience and wisdom strongly suggests that "Reply to:" set to a mailing list itself is dangerous and should be avoided.

For help you may call:

Anne Groves:	614-688-3906
Harry Laufman:	614-292-6554
John Ray:	614-292-4338