Help (Owners)

This page contains information for people running lists on LiteracyTent. Some basic questions are answered here, and links to further information are provided.

Where is my list admin page?

The URL for your list's admin page is http://lists.literacytent.org/mailman/admin/(your-list-name). For example, if your list's name was 'abc', your URL would be http://lists.literacytent.org/mailman/admin/abc.

If your list is public, it will be listed on the admin list page at http://lists.literacytent.org/mailman/admin. If it is private, you can go to that page, and add a slash and your list name to the end of the URL in your browser's address bar, and press "return".

You will need to provide your list administrator password to access your list's admin page. This password was provided to you in the email you first received from the system announcing your list's creation.

If you need help with any of this, e-mail mailman-owner@lists.literacytent.org, or use our contact form.

What kinds of things can configure on my list?

List administrators have an extraordinary amount of control over how their lists function. Some of the things you can change include:

This is only scratching the surface; list moderators get a huge amount of control over nearly every aspect of how the list works.

Should I moderate my list?

We strongly recommend that all lists be moderated. A moderated list is one in which all posts to the list go into a "holding area" until they are reviewed and approved (or rejected) by the moderator, who is notified by email when new posts arrive. This is the ONLY way to prevent spam to the lists.

If a list is not moderated, that means that any subscribed member can freely post to the list. While this may seem desirable in some respects, the unfortunate situation of people's own computers being "hijacked" by viruses to send spam means that spam can end up on the list, forged as having come from a subscribed member. Restricting posting to the lists by subscribed members is NOT ENOUGH to stop spam; the ONLY way is to have each message approved by a moderator.

Note that although it is possible to configure a list to accept postings from anyone whether they are subscribed or not, such settings are NOT allowed on LiteracyTent. A mailing list with no moderation and open posting WILL be spammed relentlessly. We are responsible internet citizens and will not allow abuse of our list server.

How does list moderation work?

List moderation actually works at a subscriber level: each subscriber has a checkbox which describes whether that individual user is moderated or not. There is also a default setting you configure for all new list members. Running a moderated list means setting this default to "yes" so that all new users are moderated when they join the list.

When a moderated user posts to the list, his/her post goes into a "holding" area for the list moderator to approve or reject, and the moderator is alerted by email whenever there is a new post. On a properly moderated list, spam will also appear here (instead of going straight to the list), where it may be discarded.

Note that with this system, it is possible to set certain individual users to "unmoderated", meaning they can post freely to the list, while retaining the default behavior of moderating other and new users. This can be very useful.

To enable moderation:

  1. Go to your list admin page (as described above).
  2. Click "Privacy options...".
  3. Click "Sender filters" under "Privacy options".
  4. Set the first option, "By default, should new list member postings be moderated?", to Yes.
  5. set the next option, "Action to take when a moderated member posts to the list", to "Hold." Note: If you want your list to be a read-only list that you control and which rejects all posts, set it to "reject".
  6. Scroll down to the bottom and click "Submit your changes".

Note that this only changes the default setting for new subscribers. If you have a body of subscribers already, they will still have whatever setting was in place when they joined the list. If this is the case, you will need to set their moderations to "on", which is done as follows:

  1. Click "Membership Management...".
  2. Scroll down to the section titled "Additional Member Tasks"
  3. Set the "Set everyone's moderation bit, including those members not currently visible" option to "On".
  4. Click "Set".

To undo list moderation, change the settings above to their opposites. Again, though, we do not recommend this.

How do I prevent spam to my list?

Moderate your list. Personally approve each posting to it. We STRONGLY recommend all lists be moderated. The ONLY way to avoid spam to the list is to have human eyes on each post before it hits the list.

How do I mass-subscribe people?

If you want to start your list off with a pre-established list of subscribers, you can go to your lists's admin page, click "Membership Managament...", and then click "Mass Subscription." You may enter one email address per line into the box provided (or alternatly, upload a text file containing these addresses), optionally type out a message to be included in the "welcome" message they'll receive, and then click "Submit Your Changes". They will be subscribed immediately.

How do I unsubscribe someone?

There is a "Mass Removal" page under "Membership Management" (see above) which works in the same way: you can enter one email address per line and click "Submit Your Changes", and the address(es) will be removed.

Alternatively, you can click "Membership List" under "Membership Management" and review the list of subscribers - long lists will be broken up into alphabetized pages. To remove one or more subscribers on a page, click the checkbox in the "unsub" column to the left of their name, and then click "Submit Your Changes" at the bottom. They will be unsubscribed.

What about attachments to messages?

Attachments to list messages are not banned outright, but they are discouraged for two reasons:

  1. Email viruses travel and spread through attachments. One virus distributed by a mailing list can infect hundreds or thousands of recipients. This has happened before.
  2. Attachments get distributed to everybody on the list, but may only be of interest to a small number. This can be both a waste of network usage, and an annoyance to people on the list who don't want the attachment.

Mailing lists are really not intended for use as a mechanism for file distribution. If you want to share files or collaborate on documents via a mailing list, the preferred method is to use shared storage (such as a web folder, ftp site, or web page) to hold the shared document, and distribute LINKS to the shared document rather than the document itself. That way there is no risk of viruses being distributed via the mailing list system, and people who don't want the files don't receive a copy.

If you need to share files but don't have any space online available, LiteracyTent will make reasonable amounts of space available to you for free for use with your list. Contact support@literacytent.org for more information.

If you DO allow attachments on the list, you must set a maximum size. This is done on the "General Options" page of your admin area, near the bottom. The setting name is "Maximum length in kilobytes (KB) of a message body." The default is 40. Please do not set it higher without contacting us first to discuss your needs.

Where can I learn more?

There are two excellent online references you should know about:

Both of these documents were written by Christopher Kolar.

You can also look at the Mailman Documentation page for much more information about the Mailman system.