Staff Mailing Lists FAQ

UWA Mailing Lists Frequently Asked Questions

The web interface for mailman mailing list administrators has many options that are configurable, and fairly self explanatory. Most of the settings appropriate to your list will have been set when it was created, in accordance with your answers on the application form. Therefore, while we encourage you to read all the options, it is recommended that you proceed with extreme caution if making changes. The sections where you are most likely to make changes are:

General Options - in particular you may need to modify descriptions and text included in standard messages. Note that some of these are added to standard text which you cannot change.

Passwords - this is where administrators may change their own password, or reset those of additional moderators. (There is no facility for moderators to change their own password.) If an administrator password is forgotten or lost, it will be necessary to contact the UCS helpdesk.

Membership management - for adding, deleting or changing options of subscribers.

Privacy options - for manipulating any restrictions on subscriptions, postings and information displayed about the list.

Subscription rules

• Advertise this list - determines whether the list is included on the mailing list wep page, allowing anyone to attempt to subscribe.
• Steps required for subscription - if "Confirm" is selected, the list should be advertised as in the item above.
• Who can view - if the list is openly advertised and no approval is required for subscription, do be aware that setting "List members" then becomes equivalent to "Anyone"

Sender filters

• Should new list member postings be moderated - setting "Yes" means you wish to approve all postings. If you want all subscribers to be able to post freely, set this as "No".
• Lists for exceptions are self-explanatory. Note that it is probably a waste of time trying to prevent spam by entering the "From" addresses in the "automatically discard" box - spammers keep changing the address they send from.

Recipient filters

• Items here should generally not be changed by administrators.

Spam filters

• This section allows the entry of rules to control spam. However, the format of a rule is not simple so unless you know how to compose unix "Regular Expressions" please enter only those rules included in this FAQ.