Setting up a new mailing list at USU
To own/maintain a mailing list at Utah State University on the LISTS.USU.EDU server (currently running Mailman 2.1.7) you must be a University employee.
Your mailing list will be given a name that does not conflict with a currently assigned list name. All lists names will be of the form "listname@lists.usu.edu. Acceptable special characters for list names include dashes "-" and underscores "_" although underscores are discourage due to readability issues when in hyperlinks.
The following information should be provided to Information Technology in order to set up your mailing list:
- Desired name of the list (name may contain underscores (_) or dashes (-) but no other special characters and no spaces, eg. Treelist or Tree_List or Tree-List)
- Which "usu.edu" email account you wish to have listed as administrator(owner) of the list.
- Whether or not the list is to be moderated (i.e., only the moderator(s) can post to the list) and if so, email addresses for those moderator(s). This list may include the list owner listed above, but is not required to do so. Also, indicate whether or not the moderator's email address should also be moderated (i.e., postings from this address still require approval. This provides extra security against spam.)
- Target Audience (eg. "usu student body officers", "all river guides in Utah", "tree surgeons belonging to the Utah Arbor Society", etc.)
- Purpose of the list - a terse phrase identifying the list (eg. "The Tree Surgeon list is for communication among membors of the Utah Arbor Society", etc. An example may be seen at http://lists.usu.edu/mailman/listinfo/mailman under "list description".)
- An introductory description (a few paragraphs at most) describing the list and its purpose, for inclusion at the top of the public list information page. (An example may be seen at http://lists.usu.edu/mailman/listinfo/mailman under "about Mailman".) This can include the email address of someone to contact with questions about the list or list content.
- The "tag" (if any) you wish to have on the subject line of the email messages from the list. (Example: [TREE LIST] )
- Whether or not people who are not signed up for the list can be allowed to post to the list. (Allowing non-members to post to the list is highly discouraged as that will leave your list vulnerable to spam messages.)
- Your name, department, email, phone, office location, and UMC. If you are a student, also provide the name, department, email, phone, office location and UMC for the Universtiy employee sponsoring the mailman list.
- There are no charges associated with creating a listserv for University purposes. To have a listserv created please contact the IT Service Desk at 797-HELP (4357) or email Steve.Funk@usu.edu
In addition, you should be prepared with the initial list of email addresses (if any) you want to be subscribed
to the mailing list. You will enter those names/addresses yourself once the list is created.
If you have the
list of names in a text file, that file can be uploaded to the mailman server to mass subscribe people to your
list.
The names should be in the format indicated below.
Mailing List Maintenance
Once the list has been set up, you will be able to manually edit the "welcome message", "goodbye message", and the mailing list membership (subscribers) list. That information as well as all other options are edited through a web interface on lists.usu.edu.
The Membership List
If you keep your membership list in a separate file on your PC, it can have a few different formats:
- The name may be in quotes, followed by the email address in angle brackets:
"Lastname, Firstname" <somebody@somewhere.com>
- The name may be listed without quotes, but followed by the email address still in angle brackets:
Absolutely Noone <abolutelynoone@cc.usu.edu>
- The email address can be listed without an accompanying name, enclosed in angle brackets:
<nobody@cc.usu.edu>
- The email address can be listed without an accompanying name, without angle brackets:
theodoreroosevelt@deadpresidents.com
- The email address can be listed first, in angle brackets, followed by the name not enclosed in quotes,
but this form will not cause the name to be detected by the mailman software:
<youraddress@yourdomain.com> Firstname Lastname
Notice the use of commas in the file, your file cannot contain commas in the name field UNLESS THE NAME IS IN QUOTES. The names may be last name first or first name first. Periods after initials are acceptable. Email address must be enclosed in angle brackets, i.e., <email@address.here> if the line also contains the real name of the person.
