General Information

Mailman Main Page

• How do I subscribe to a mailman list?

Go to the mailman list home page at lists.creighton.edu and locate and click the list you wish to subscribe to.

Next enter your email address and a list password in the area labeled Subscribing to.  Although the password is optional, we recommend setting one yourself or the system will provide for you.  You will need this password later to change your subscriptions options. (Digest version, etc.) You will be reminded monthly by email of your mailman subscriptions and the passwords for changing your options.

Finally click Subscribe.

• How do I unsubscribe from a mailman list?

Go to the mailman list home page lists.creighton.edu and locate and click the list you wish to unsubscribe to.

Next enter your subscribed email address and click Unsubscribe or edit options. On the next page click Unsubscribe and a confirmation email will be sent to the address entered on the previous page. Use the link provided in the email to complete the process.

• I forgot the password to a list I am subscribed to. What now?

Mailman sends a message with the password and url for the subscriber to follow when that subscriber is subscribed. Once a month, mailman also sends an email to each unique email address with a list of the lists, passwords, and urls for that unique email address. If you are subscribed under a number of different addresses that all route to the same account, so you could potentially receive multiple copies.

If you do not have these emails, you can have a password reminder sent to you by going to the main mailman webpage at lists.creighton.edu, locate, and click the list name.  Next scroll down enter your email address in the Unsubscribe or edit options box and click.  You will then be sent to a member options page. Scroll down to Password Reminder and click Remind and a message will be sent to the email address you entered earlier. (Note:  Due to obvious security concerns, it will not tell you if you entered a correct, subscribed address.)

If you know the password to another list you are subscribed to with the same email address, go to your options using that list. Go to lists.creighton.edu, locate, and click the list name. Next scroll down and enter your email in the Unsubscribe or edit options box and click. On the next Member Options page, enter your password and click Log In. Next scroll down, locate the Change Your Password box and enter your current password in both boxes.  Select Change Globally  and then Change My Password. This will change your password for all lists you are subscribed to with that email address.

If you are still unable to login, send an email to the list owner.  The address is located at the bottom of the list page.  It will say: LISTNAME run by user@creighton.edu.

• How do I get to my subscriptions options page for a specific list?

Go to lists.creighton.edu, locate, and click the list name. Next scroll down and enter your email in the Unsubscribe or edit options box and click.  On the next Member Options page, enter your password and click Log In.

• How do I change my password?

Follow the instructions for "How do I get to my subscriptions options page for a specific list?" above and scroll down to "Change Your Password" and enter your password in both boxes. You can optionally check "Change Globally", which will change the password for all lists you are subscribed to with that address to the password you just typed in. Then click "Change My Password".

• How do I see what other mailman lists I am subscribed to?

Follow the instructions for "How do I get to my subscriptions options page for a specific list?" above and scroll down to "Your other lists.creighton.edu subscriptions" and click on "List my other subscriptions".

Alternately, each unique email address you are subscribed as will receive monthly a message containing a list of lists, passwords, and urls for each list that unique address is subscribed as.

• How do I change the address I am subscribed as?

Follow the instructions for "How do I get to my subscriptions options page for a specific list?" above (or if you are following a link in a monthly email reminder, log in using the list password provided in the email) and the first section at the top contains an area to type in a New Address. You will have to type it in twice. Be sure to check the box marked "Change globally" before clicking the "Change My Address and Name" button

• How do I stop monthly reminders from being sent to me each month?

Follow the instructions for "How do I get to my subscriptions options page for a specific list?" above (or if you are following a link in a monthly email reminder, log in using the list password provided in the email) and scroll down to Get password reminder email for this list?. Change the setting to "No" and if you wish to get no reminders for any of the lists that this particular return address is subscribed to, also check "Set Globally" then scroll down and "Submit".

Note that if you get more than one monthly mailing from mailman at lists.creighton.edu, it means that you are subscribed with multiple addresses. You will have to follow these instructions for each subscribed address. This can be easily accomplished by using one included link and password pair from each mailing.

• I tried to post a picture to my list and it was rejected as too large. What do I do?

Depending on what software is loaded onto your computer you may already have graphics manipulation software. However, there are also a number of online tools available. I have found Shrink Pictures to be one of the easiest.

 

• I forgot my listowner password!

Remember, the listowner password is for managing the list via the web interface. It is different from your subscription password(s).

If you forgot the listowner password, send me an email and in it include the list name and what you'd like the new password to be. It should be something not too simple or obvious but easy to remember that IS NOT your BLUE password.

Keep in mind that when the password is changed it will be sent to all current list owners of your list (if there are more than one).

• Can I change multiple options at once?

If all of your changes are on one page of options, you can make as many changes as you like before scrolling to the bottom of the page and pressing Submit.

• How do I include a short description of my list?

On the [General Options] page, scroll down to "A terse phrase identifying this list" and enter your short description. Scroll to bottom and Submit.

• How do I change the maximum message size?

On the [General Options] page, scroll down to "Maximum length in kilobytes (KB) of a message body". If your list is just short email messages back and forth between subscribers, you will probably not need to change this as 40 will probably work just fine.

It is recommended that you leave this option as it is until you are required to approve a message to your list that was deemed "too large" (reason and size are included for all email that requires approval). You can then adjust your number accordingly. Generally speaking, if you have to increase it to 120 or greater, perhaps the large files should live on a webpage and the message merely include a link to it.

• How do I turn on moderation?

Mailman allows various types of moderation, depending on your needs as listowner. Remember that all email from moderated addresses will need to be approved by you, but this is easily done via the "Tend to pending moderator requests" page which can be easily reached from the list administration pages and from the emails sent to the listowner alerting of messages requiring approval.

Individual moderation

Go to [Membership Management], then [Membership List] and check the box in the "mod" column next to the address(es) you wish moderated.

Emergency moderation

There may be a time when you wish to suppress the free flow of messages to your list due to a flame war or whatever. By turning on moderation temporarily, you can then choose which messages to send out to your list.

Go to [Membership Management], then [Membership List] and down just below the Submit button is an option for "Set everyone's moderation bit". Set to "On" and click "Set". You may then wish to remove moderation from yourself by following the "Individual moderation" instructions (above) in reverse.

Complete list moderation

If your list already has subscribers on it, first follow the instructions for "Emergency moderation" above.

Then go to [Privacy Options] and click [Sender Filters]. Then check "By default, should new list member postings be moderated? (member_moderation_action)" to "Yes" and again go down and click "Submit Your Changes"

• How do I make my list closed so that I approve all subscriptions?

Go to [Privacy Options], then [Subscription Rules] then scroll down to "What steps are required for subscription?" and choose either "Require Approval" or "Confirm and Approve". The default is "Confirm" which sends an email to the requesting email address with a link to be followed to complete subscription. See "Details for subscribe_policy" for full explanations of these options.

• How do I subscribe folks to my list?

Go to [Membership Management], then [Mass Subscription]. In the first large text box below on that page, enter email addresses (one per line) then scroll down and hit "Submit".

NOTE: Unsatisfactory results may occur if you cut/paste from a Word doc or Access spreadsheet or other non-plain text format.

• How do I unsubscribe folks from my list?

Go to [Membership Management]. Find their address (listed alphabetically) and check the box in the first column. Do as many as you'd like (per page) then scroll down and hit "Submit".

• Can I stop subscribers from unsubscribing?

Yes, you can, but this is not as useful as it might seem. Go to [Privacy Options], then [Subscription Rules] then scroll down to "Is the list moderator's approval required for unsubscribe requests?" and choose "Yes" and then "Submit". However, not only will you generate ill will among your subscribers, but they can circumvent this by going to their own options for the list and disabling mail delivery.

• Can I have more than one listowner?

Yes. On the [General Options] page, scroll down to "The list administrator email addresses" (the second entry box down). Enter email addresses, one per line, and then you'll have to share the list password with these trusted individuals. Remember, they have complete rights to your list.

If you only wish for them to approve postings and subscription requests, then put their email addresses in the box below that one marked "The list moderator email addresses". If you choose this option, you'll also have to create a moderator password. After entering and submitting the moderator address(es), choose [Passwords] from the list and enter (and re-enter for verification) a moderator password that is different from your owner password. You will then need to share this with your moderators.

• Can I change the listowner myself??

Yes, just as you would add additional owners as described above in "Can I have more than one listowner?", just replace your address with the new listowner address and make sure you share the list password with them.

 

NOTE!!! At least ONE of the listowner addresses MUST be an @creighton.edu address! This is so we can assign the list to a Creighton University individual and have Microsoft Defender do spam/virus filtering on all email emanating from lists at Creighton. If the list DOES NOT have a Creighton owner or has NO OWNER at all, the list will be deleted and is not recoverable.

• How do I change the Reply-To for my list so that replies are sent to (the list|the sender of the message)?

On the [General Options] page, scroll down to Where are replies to list messages directed? If you wish replies to go to the entire list, choose This List, and if you prefer replies to go back to the originator of the message, choose Poster.

• How do I allow posting from non-subscribers?

You may have a list that you wish any member of Creighton to post to even if they are not subscribed. Go to [Privacy Options], then [Sender Filters] and scroll down to List of non-member addresses whose postings should be automatically accepted. If you wish to only allow other Creighton University addresses to post, put the following in the text box:

^.+@creighton\.edu$
^.+@.+\.creighton\.edu$

If you want to allow the world to post, put in the following:

^.+$

Then scroll down and Submit.

If you have no other entries on that page, you can also just scroll down to Action to take for postings from non-members for which no explicit action is defined and click Accept, then Submit.

But be very careful with these last two as your list may be inundated with unwanted emails that will not go to the listowner for approval and will simply be re-routed to the subscribers. This can include messages laden with spam or viruses that your readers may find dangerous or inappropriate.

• I have to approve messages that say "Too many recipients to the message". Can I fix this?

The message "Too many recipients to the message" can be caused by a setting in the Admin page for the list under:

  -=> [Privacy options]
    -=> [Recipient filters]

The default "ceiling on acceptable number of recipients for a posting" is set to 10. Try changing this to a larger number (say 20 or whatever number you think you need to allow), or 0 (setting it to zero will turn the check off, but this is not advised), or perhaps not have a big cc list when sending to the list (but sometimes this is unavoidable.)

As always, scroll down and click "Submit" after making changes.

• HELP! My list is getting a lot of spam. Is there anything I can do about it?

You can have any messages that come to your list from an unsubscribed address be automatically rejected or discarded. This would be a good choice for lists that are mainly outgoing announcements, but would work for any list that does not rely on posts from non-subscribers. However, if you find that you regularly have to approve messages from subscribers using an address other than the one they are subscribed with, you may wish to merely reject instead of discard (see below).

From the web interface for your list(s):

  -=> [Privacy options]
    -=> [Sender filters]

Scroll down to almost the very bottom. The second to the last option says: "Action to take for postings from non-members for which no explicit action is defined" Change this to either:

• Discard (the messages will be thrown away)
• Reject (NOT RECOMMENDED! a message will be sent back to the sender alerting them as to why their message was rejected. This is only a good option if you have folks who send messages from a non-subscribed address. Messages from spammers generally come from bogus addresses and eventually your return spam will stop ping-ponging around the Internet. A better combination is setting this option to "Discard" and the next option to "Yes"- read on...)

You might also change the next option, "Should messages from non-members, which are automatically discarded, be forwarded to the list moderator?" to "No" if you have no reason or care to see what might be being discarded.

As always, scroll down and click "Submit" after making changes.

• My list has an archive. How long is the archive retained?

In general, a minimum of six months worth of posts are retained for lists that choose to have archives. However, this amount is not set in stone and may change without notice depending on space requirements and usage. Archiving is currently turned on by default for all new lists.

• How do I have my list closed and deleted?

If you are the listowner and you no longer need your list, we welcome the opportunity to remove your list to decrease the number of abandoned lists. Send an email and include the list name and your list will be removed.