lists

Managing a mailing list by email

Both Generic and Text-type mailing lists support automated commands by email. This means that the list moderator can send special commands via email to add names or remove them from the list, review the list membership, etc. End users could also subscribe or unsubscribe themselves.

To enable these functions:

1. Go the list properties > Security tab and enable the following:
   • Enable Review command by moderator
   • Enable extended JOIN, LEAVE and SETMEMBER commands
2. Make sure the list moderator's email address is specified in the list properties > Moderation tab
3. If you want end users to be able to subscribe or unsubscribe themselves, make sure that "Anyone" is selected under the Who Can Post section on the Moderation tab.

Commands:

• A moderator can get a list of members by doing this:

  
  Send an email to listname-request@domain.com with the word "REVIEW" in the body of the message.

• A moderator can add a new list member by doing this:

  
  Send email to listname-request@domain.com with the following line in the body:
  SUBSCRIBE listname user@anydomain.com

• A moderator can unsubscribe or remove a list member by doing this:

  
  Send email to listname-request@domain.com with the following line in the body:
  UNSUBSCRIBE listname user@anydomain.com

• End users can subscribe themselves to a list by doing this:

  
  Send email to listname-request@domain.com with the following line the body:
  SUBSCRIBE

• End users can unsubscribe themselves from a list by doing this:

  
  Send email to listname-request@domain.com with the following line the body:
  UNSUBSCRIBE

How to use the commands:

• The commands (SUBSCRIBE, UNSUBSCRIBE, etc.) must be in the body of the message, NOT the subject line.
• The message body must contain only the command: there can be no other message or electronic signature. If there is additional text in the message, the command will get processed, but the remainder of the text will produce parsing errors.
• You CAN do multiple commands in a single email: there must be one command per line
• The commands will not work with Server mailing lists
• The listname-request@domain.com address must be used for the commands only. When sending a "normal" message to the list, just use the listname@domain.com address (i.e. don't use the -request directive).