mailmanfaqs

Support & Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

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Mailman FAQs

Q. How do I add users to my list?
A. Go to your administrative interface (http://lists.ncmail.net/mailman/admin/listname) and login with your list password. Then choose Membership Management... out of the Configuration Categories. Choose Subscription. Then enter the email addresses in the first box one email address per line.

You can also upload a txt or csv file as long as it contains only the email addresses, one per line. Something to note, if using an excel spreadsheet to keep track of your addresses, you cannot upload it directly, but you can copy & paste the column with the email addresses.

If you would like to include someone's name as well as their email address, the format is:

Their Name <theiremailaddr@thedomain.com>

One per line. Please note the < > are required around the email address for the add with a name as specified in the example above.

Q. How do I remove users from my list?
A. Go to your administrative interface (http://lists.ncmail.net/mailman/admin/listname) and login with your list password. Then choose Membership Management... out of the Configuration Categories. You can then use one of two methods. You can find the user in the membership list, check the “unsub” box in front of their name/email address, and click submit. Or you can choose Mass Removal. Then enter the email addresses in the first box one email address per line.

You can also upload a txt or csv file as long as it contains only the email addresses, one per line. Something to note, if using an excel spreadsheet to keep track of your addresses, you cannot upload it directly, but you can copy & paste the column with the email addresses.

Q. My list is broken up alphabetically. How do I see everyone on my list at one time?
A. Go to http://lists.ncmail.net/mailman/roster/listname
If you've chosen to allow anyone to access your list membership, they will be able to go to the same location. Otherwise, you will need to log in to see your membership.

You can also send an email to listname-request@lists.ncmail.net with a blank subject and the content:

who <listpassword>

If the membership is open to everyone, you won't need to include the list password. The response email will contain the list membership including names (if they exist in mailman) in addition to email addresses.

Q. Someone I want to be able to post to the list is getting rejected/held for moderation. How do I fix this?
A. If the person is a member of the list, uncheck the “mod” box next to their name in the Membership List (under Membership Management...). If the person is not a list member, add them to by choosing Privacy Options... from Configuration Categories, then choose Sender Filters, then put that individual's address in the “List of non-member addresses whose postings should be automatically accepted.” box, and click submit.

Q. I got this message that a email to my list is being held for moderation. Why did I get this and how to I stop this from happening?
A. There are a number of reasons a message can be held for moderation. The reason the message was held is indicated in the alert you received and on the “Tend to pending moderator requests” page. Here is a review of what some of those reasons are and how to prevent messages from hitting those rules again.

Reason: Post to moderated list

This reason is caused when someone without permissions to email through to the list sends a message to the list address. To prevent this for all future emails for this member, you can remove the checkbox from the “mod” box after their name/email address in the membership list.

Reason: Post by non-member to a members-only list

This is the reason given whenever a non-member tries to post to a list that is configured to only allow members to post. You can add them as an allowed sender by choosing Privacy Options... from Configuration Categories, then choose Sender Filters, then put that individual's address in the “List of non-member addresses whose postings should be automatically accepted.” box, and click submit. You can also specify domains in this box with this format:

^.*@domain.name

If want absolutely anyone to be able to email your list and you are getting this reason on moderated messages. Check that “By default, should new list member postings be moderated?” is set to No and that “Action to take for postings from non-members for which no explicit action is defined.” is set to Accept (under Privacy Options...Sender Filters).

Reason: Message has implicit destination

This is the reason given when a message is BCCed to the list address. By default, mailman is configured to hold these messages for moderation. If you would like these messages to pass through without moderation, you can choose Privacy Options... from Configuration Categories, then choose Recipient Filters and set “Must posts have list named in destination (to, cc) field (or be among the acceptable alias names, specified below)?” to No.

Reason: Too many recipients to the message

This reason is given when there are more than the specified number of addresses in the To: and CC: fields of a message. This is not a limit on the number of people in the list. This is a limit to the number of people copied on the message in addition to the list's email address. You can adjust this limit by choosing Privacy Options... from Configuration Categories, then choosing Recipient Filters, and changing the number in the “Ceiling on acceptable number of recipients for a posting.” field. If you would like to remove this restriction, set this field to 0.

Q. I'm seeing a text attachment to all my mails to the list?
A. This is the default text footer on the message. If your message is HTML, the text footer will appear as an attachment. If you don't want to include that information in your message:
It's under Non-digest options: "Footer added to mail sent to regular list members"

Q. Why would I want my Subject to contain a list identifier?
A. A couple of reasons. First, it allows the recipient to quick identify the source of the email as the list. Second, it is generally considered polite.

There are also reasons you would not want this to be the case. One being, if you have lists on lists on lists, the actual subject gets pushed off too far to the left.

Q. My list has 2 administrators, can they each have their own password?
A. No. The list currently allows just the one administrative password.

Q. How can people subscribe themselves to my list?
A. If you choose to allow people to subscribe to your list on their own, they can go here:
http://lists.ncmail.net/mailman/listinfo/listname
or email
listname-subscribe@lists.ncmail.net

Q. How can people unsubscribe themselves to my list?
A. If they wish to unsubscribe they can log in here
http://lists.ncmail.net/mailman/listinfo/listname
With the information they used to subscribe or they can email:
listname-unsubscribe@lists.ncmail.net

Q. Can I add a standard message to the bottom of all my mails to the list?
A. Sure you can put a default text footer on the message, if you don't want to include that information in your actual message:
It's under Non-digest options: "Footer added to mail sent to regular list members"
Please note that you won't want to use this if you are sending HTML emails that you always want to appear in the body rather than as an attachment.