You are encouraged to use the IU LISTSERV system if you need to set up a mailing list. However, the IU Computer Science Department also maintains a mailing list management system using the Mailman Software Package. This provides users with a powerful, web-based system for the use, administration, and archiving of mailing lists. Some of the features of this system include:

• An intuitive web-based list administration interface.
• List archiving that can be public or private (password protected).
• A mail-to-news gateway.
• All the feature you expect from a full-featured listserv system, including optional moderation, digesting, automated subscription/unsubscription, and integrated spam prevention.

The rest of this document provides information about common procedures you are likely to need to perform in order to use this sytem.

Also note that there is another mechanism for maintaining mailing lists called addalias. Addalias just gives you a way to maintain a mailing list with the addresses kept in a single file that you can edit directly. This system lacks virtually all of the nice features you get with Mailman, but it may be sufficient for some simple lists. See the addalias manual page (ie. run man addalias) for more information on this system.

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Creating a new mailing list
Removing a mailing list
List maintenance and configuration
Information for list users
Notes about secure lists and anti-spam measures

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Creating a new mailing list

There is currently no automated way for you to create your own list. Please just use the normal reporting channels to request that the list be added. You will need to select a mailing list name that has a dash (-) in it to prevent potential naming conflicts with current and future usernames we may have. For example, something like foobar-list would be a good choice. Once we create the list, you will be notified and will receive a password that you can use to administer the list.

Removing a mailing list

As with the creation of a list, there is currently no automated way for you to remove a list. Please just use the normal reporting channels to request that the list be removed. When the list is removed, the list archives can be left on-line or removed. Please let us know if you want the archives to be removed.

List maintenance and configuration

All of the maintenance and configuration of the mailing list are done via the web interface. If your list is called foobar-list, the url for adminstering the list would be:

http://mailman.cs.indiana.edu/mailman/admin/foobar-list

This web page is quite intuitive and should guide you through all of the administration tasks.

You will be given an initial password to access this web page. You should change the administrator password when you first login, which is done from this web page. It is stongly recommended that you not use your normal system password as the password for your Mailman mailing lists.

When you setup your first mailing list, you are encouraged to go through all of the configuration options that are available. There are lots of neat features that you may want to use. For example, you can restrict posting privileges to members of the list, limit the size of postings, and hide the name of the list from the outside world. You can even do obscure, but potentially quite useful, things like flag specific email addresses so that postings from that address always need to be approved.

Information for list users

Users of the mailing list can subscribe or unsubscribe from the mailing list using the web interface. If the list is called foobar-list, the url for users of the list would be:

http://mailman.cs.indiana.edu/mailman/listinfo/foobar-list

This web page is quite intuitive and should guide you through various tasks including subscribing, unsubscribing, electing to receive the mailing in digest form, and accessing the archives.

There is also an email interface to the list. Using this interface, you can perform a wide variety of tasks. Rather than document them all here, you should use the standard help mechanism to get a list of the available commands. Just send an email to:

listname-request@mailman.cs.indiana.edu

(where you replace listname with the name of the mailing list) with help in the subject of the message.

You can also get a list of all publicaly-advertised mailman lists being hosted by our server by visiting the following URL:

http://mailman.cs.indiana.edu/mailman/listinfo

Notes about secure lists and anti-spam measures

Mailman has quite a number of options for securing mailing lists. Some of these options are listed below. Note that all of these are configured via the web admin page for the list.

• Hide the list name - From the privacy options page, you can select not to advertise this list. This is useful if you don't want the casual observer to know about the list.
• Private archiving - By default, the mailing list is archived and the archives are publicly readable. From the Archival Options page, you can turn off archiving or make the archive private. When the archive is private, the members of the list must use their password to access it.
• Hide the list members - By default, it is possible for anyone to get a listing of all the members of the list. You can turn this off for the entire list from the privacy options page or you can turn it off on a per-user basis from the membership management page.
• Confirmation and approval of subscriptions - By default, when someone subscribes to the list they are sent an email and they must reply to the email to confirm their subscription. This prevents someone from subscribing someone else to the list. It is also possible from the privacy options page to require that all subscription requests be approved by the list administrator.
• Posting restrictions - From the privacy options page, you can control various restrictions on postings. You can limit the list so that only members of the list can post to it and you can setup moderation.
• SPAM prevention - From the privacy options page, you can control various parameters that are intended to filter out unwanted SPAM postings.
• List admin email address - In the general options page, you set the email address of the list administrator. Keep in mind that this address will appear by default in the info page for all publically advertised lists. You may wish to obfuscate the address to prevent spam email harvesters from grabbing your email address. for example, you might want to replace "username@cs.indiana.edu" with something like "username@removeme.cs.indiana.edu".
• General information page - The email address of any public list is displayed in a mailto: link by default on the general information page for the list. You can go to the "Edit the HTML for the public list pages" link to edit these public pages. You may wish to obfuscate any email address that appear here again to prevent spam email harvesters from grabbing addresses.

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