Once your list has been set up you’ll need to do some occasional work to manage it - the amount will depend essentially on what the users of the list are doing. For example you my have to aprove subcribe and unsubscribe requests.
Majordomo Mail Explosion List Beginners Majordomo Tutorial Managing Your Mailing Lists
Table of Contents
- Subscribing and unsubscribing people
- Approving subscribe and unsubscribe requests
- Subscribing and unsubscribing people on their behalf
- Approving Messages
- Setting the list information file
- Changing your password
- Monitoring the membership of a list
Subscribing and unsubscribing people
Normally people will initiate a subscription to, or unsubscription from, your list themselves, by sending appropriate mail messages to the mailing list system. However, there may be occasions when you want to add or remove someone yourself.
Approving messages - If your list is a restricted list then only named people will be allowed to mail directly to the list. Similarly if your list is a members-only list then only list members can mail directly to the list. Messages sent from other people will be sent to you for approval. If your list is a moderated list, then all submissions will be sent to you for approval.
- Setting the list information file
- You can update the information file that list users can request at any time you choose
- Setting the list owner’s password
- You can change the password that identifies you as the list owner at any time
- Monitoring the membership of a list
- You can ask the mailing list system to show you who is a member of your list at any time
Approving subscribe and unsubscribe requests
All requests from users to join or leave your list must be approved by you before they are carried out.
You’ll be notified that the mailing list system wants your approval by means of a mail message from it, which will look something like this:
widow-orphan lines-together:
From:majordomo (at) lists.lancs.ac.uk
To: slugsoc-approval@lists.lancs.ac.uk
Subject: APPROVE slugsoc
Hugh.Borg@borg.org requests that you approve the following:
subscribe slugsoc Hugh.Borg@borg.org
In this example, the message is telling you that someone giving the mail address Hugh.Borg@borg.org has asked to join your list called slugsoc.
If you don’t want this person to join your list, you do nothing and can simply delete the message from the mailing list system. The system will not carry out the user’s request.
However, if you do want to allow the person to subscribe, you need to indicate your approval to the mailing list system by means of a mail message. Using whatever mail program you choose, send a message to the address
majordomo (at) lists.lancs.ac.uk
Because this is the address that the mailing list system has sent its message from. you’ll probably find it easier to use your mailer’s reply facility to reply to the message, and edit it appropriately.
The mail address has two components. To the right of the ‘ @’ sign, the "lists.lancs.ac.uk" part directs the message to the computer running the mailing list system. To the left of it, the "majordomo" part tells this computer that the message is to be sent to the mailing lists system itself. The subject line of the message is irrelevant; you can put anything you wish, or nothing at all. In the message itself you put the command
approve password subscribe slugsoc Hugh.Borg@borg.org
where you must type your list owner’s password in place of password.
The message you receive will contain a skeleton command showing you what to do; if you use your mailer’s reply facility you’ll be able to edit this to contain your actual password very quickly.
back to topSubscribing and unsubscribing people on their behalf
Normally those who want to join or leave your list will initiate the action themselves by means of mail messages. However, there may be cases where you need to take action on behalf of someone else - they may have left and forgotten to unsubscribe, for example.
A proxy subscribe or unsubscribe action could be carried out in the normal way, with you pretending to be the user concerned. Firstly, you would send a mail message to the mailing list system as though you were the person concerned, and request the action to be carried out. When the mailing list system receives this message it will process it as normal, and will ask you, the list owner, to approve the action. You can do this as described in the above section, “Approving subscribe and unsubscribe requests”.
However, there is a short cut you can use which means you only need to send one mail message to the list system. This involves sending the approve command straight to the list system instead of it having to ask you for approval.
Let’s suppose that you want to remove someone whose mail address is J.L.Picard@enterprise.org from your slugsoc list on their behalf. Using whatever mail program you choose, send a message to the address
slugsoc-request@lists.lancs.ac.uk
This address has two components. To the right of the ‘@’ sign, the “lists.lancs.ac.uk” part directs the message to the computer running the mailing list system. To the left of it, the “slugsoc-request” part tells this computer that the message is a request concerning the slugsoc list.
The subject line of the message is irrelevant; you can put anything you wish, or nothing at all.
In the message itself you put the command
approve password unsubscribe J.L.Picard@enterprise.org
where you specify the exact and complete mail address of the person you’re removing. You must type your list owner’s password in place of password.
When the mailing list system receives this message it will immediately process the action you specified. The inclusion of “approve password ” at the beginning of the command tells the list system that it already has approval and therefore does not need to send a message to you the list owner to ask for approval.
back to topApproving messages
When a non-authorised person tries to mail to a restricted or members-only list, or anybody at all tries to mail to a moderated list, their message will be forwarded to you for approval. The message from the mailing list system is slightly different for each of the two cases, but the actions required by you are the same. The message for a restricted list will look like:
From: owner-slugsoc@lists.lancs.ac.uk
To: owner-slugsoc@lists.lancs.ac.uk
Subject: BOUNCE slugsoc: Non-member submission from [Hugh Borg <Hugh.Borg@borg.org>]
The message for a moderated list will look like:
From: owner-slugsoc@lists.lancs.ac.uk
To: owner-slugsoc@lists.lancs.ac.uk
Subject: BOUNCE slugsoc: Approval required
In both cases, the sender’s message complete with headers will form the body of the message from the mailing list system. If you do not want to send the message to the list then you need do nothing, although you may want to mail the author to explain why you have rejected the message. If you do want to approve the message, then you will need to carry out the following instructions - this is the most complicated thing you will need to do as a list administrator.
Using your usual mail program, save the message from the mailing list system to a file.
You now need to edit this file using your preferred text editor. You will need to delete some mail headers, and add a new header to tell the mailing list system that you wish to approve the message. You will notice that the saved file contains two sets of mail headers. On most mail systems, these two sets of headers are separated by a blank line. The second set of headers will begin like this:
- From your_mail_address@lancaster.ac.uk
- Date Received: ………
or:
- From your_mail_address@lancaster.ac.uk
- Date Received: ………
For example:
- From N.Pettigrew@lancaster.ac.uk Tue Oct 10 10:52:24
- Received: ………
Delete all of the first set of mail headers up to and including the blank line separator.
Delete the From or From line shown above. You should now have a file that begins with a Received: header. Do not delete any other parts of the mail headers.
You now need to add a new header line. This must go at the start of the message before the Received: header. The line should look like this:
Approved: password
where password is your list owner’s password.
Your edited file should now look like this:
Approved: password
Received: ...
Save the file and exit your text editor.
Now, you must send the approved message back to the mailing list. You must send this message to the list address, not to the general majordomo address. Using whatever mail program you choose, send a message to the address
slugsoc@lists.lancs.ac.uk
This address has two components. To the right of the ‘@’sign, the “ lists.lancs.ac.uk” part directs the message to the computer running the mailing list system. To the left of it, the “slugsoc” part tells this computer that the message is for the slugsoc list.
The subject line of the message is irrelevant; you can put anything you wish, or nothing at all.
In the message itself you insert the file which you have edited. The0 file must be inserted at the very start of the message - there can be no text or white space before the Approved: header. Send the message as normal.
When the mailing list system receives this message, it will see the Approved: header and will send the message on to the list (assuming the password is correct). The Approved: header containing your password will be removed by the mailing list system before the message is sent to the list.
back to topSetting the list information file
When a user subscribes to your list, or asks the mailing list system for information about it, he or she will be sent a file of information that you provide to describe the list. You supply this file initially when the list is created, but you can change it at any time.
To alter the information file, send a mail message to the address
majordomo (at) lists.lancs.ac.uk
This address has two components. To the right of the ‘@’ sign, the " lists.lancs.ac.uk " part directs the message to the computer running the mailing list system. To the left of it,the “majordomo” part tells this computer that the message is to be sent to the mailing lists system itself.
The subject line of the message is irrelevant; you can put anything you wish, or nothing at all.
In the message itself you put the command
newinfo listname password
giving the name of your list for listname, and your list owner’s password for password.
On the immediate next line, begin the new information text. This can extend over as many lines as you wish, but normally should not be more than a few pages long. You should also keep the length of each line to less than 80 characters.
The mailing list system will replace the old information file with what is specified in the message. Unless you say otherwise, the whole of your message from the command to the end will be used, including any mail signature that is automatically appended to it. You should either remove the signature, or indicate the end of the text with a line that contains only the word
back to topChanging your password
Using whatever mail program you choose, send a message to the address
majordomo (at) lists.lancs.ac.uk
This address has two components. To the right of the '@' sign, the "lists.lancs.ac.uk" part directs the message to the computer running the mailing list system. To the left of it, the "majordomo" part tells this computer that the message is to be sent to the mailing lists system itself.
The subject line of the message is irrelevant; you can put anything you wish, or nothing at all.
In the message itself you put the command
passwd listname oldpassword newpassword
Here you substitute the actual name of your list for listname, give the current password for oldpassword, and specify what the new password should be as newpassword.
Note: You should never use any part of your login passwords as a mailing list password. Mailing list passwords are sent as plain text in mail messages. You should use a completely new password for your mailing list(s).
back to topMonitoring the membership of a list
You can ask the mailing list system for a list of people who are subscribed to your list by electronic mail. Using whatever mail program you choose, send a message to the address
Example: majordomo (at) lists.lancs.ac.uk
To the right of the '@' sign is the name of the computer which runs the mailing list system; to the left of it the name "majordomo" directs the message to the program that handles inquiries.
The subject line of the message is irrelevant; you can put anything you wish, or nothing at all.In the message itself insert the command
"who listname" putting the name of your list for listname. The mailing system will return a mail message with a list of the members’ addresses.
Of course, you will also be able to make the same use of your list as anyone else, and can send message to those who are members of it. These aspects are covered in the companion guide Using Mail Explosion Lists At Lancaster, available from Information Systems Services.
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