Mailman Mailing Lists

[Nov 23, 2009 14:09] Web access to Microsoft Live@edu accounts now works.

ITC's many-featured Web-interface list management service is available to support the academic, research and administrative purposes of the University of Virginia community.

 

Overview of Mailman mailing lists

An email message sent to one email address (the address of the mailing list) will be distributed to the email addresses subscribed to the list if the message meets criteria set by the list administrator. If the message fails to meet this criteria, the message is discarded or held for review by the list administrator and/or list moderator, depending on how the list is configured.

Mailman has four basic entities and uses the terms list administrator, list moderator, list member, and approved sender.

List administrator

A Mailman list administrator can:

  • manage the list, which includes changing the list configuration, subscribing/unsubscribing email addresses to/from the list membership
  • review and dispose of held messages (i.e., act as a list moderator)

The Mailman list administrator can send messages to the list and have the messages distributed immediately to the list members only if the Mailman list administrator is a member of the list with unmoderated status or if the list administrator is an approved sender for the list.

Information about list administration:

List moderator

A Mailman list moderator can review and dispose of held messages. The Mailman list moderator has no other abilities with respect to list management.

If a list has one or more individuals who function as Mailman list moderators, the list should have a moderator password that differs from the list administrator password.

Like the list administrator, a Mailman list moderator can send messages to the list and have the messages distributed immediately to the list members only if the Mailman list moderator is a member of the list with unmoderated status or if the list moderator is an approved sender for the list.

Mailman list moderation information:

List member

For a moderated Mailman list, the Mailman list member's email address is in the list as either an unmoderated list member (the email address has permission to send messages to the list and have the messages distributed to list members without review) or a moderated list member (messages sent from the list member's email address are always held for review before distribution to the list members). Unmoderated list members will have their list membership configuration show an unmoderated status and will also be an approved sender for the list.

List member information:

Approved sender

A Mailman approved sender can send a message to the list and have it distributed immediately to list members without other approval. An approved sender has no other abilities with respect to list administration or message moderation. A Mailman approved sender is not required to be a member of the list.

When someone sends a message to a moderated list, if the sender's email address appears in the member list as an unmoderated member or appears in the approved sender list, the message will be distributed immediately to all list members. If the sender's email address does not appear in either of these two areas, then the message may be held (until a list administrator or a list moderator reviews the message and decides how to dispose of the message), rejected, or discarded depending on the configuration of the list.

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