IntNet Printable List Administrator Instructions

List Administrator Instructions

If you already had a list set up with Lyris software your list has already been moved over to this new software with all your previous settings and subscribers intact. These instructions will help you maintain your list with the new software.

You will have been assigned a mailbox for your List. Your mailbox will be owner-(listname)@lists.intnet.net.

In order for you to access your list you will need to open a Web Browser and enter: http://lists.intnet.net

You will see something like the following:

In the "Login Name" field enter the full email address assigned to you and then put in the password for this account in the appropriate field and press "Enter".

This will take you to something like this:

SETTINGS

The first thing we want to do is to change some settings to make management of the mail a bit easier so click on "Settings" which will move you to a new page:

Scroll down the page to:

Click on the "Display" button and choose 100 instead of "default(50)".

Next click on the "Refresh every" button and select "5 minutes".

Scroll further down until you get to this:

Find Trash Management, then Message Delete Method

The message delete method should be "default(Move To Trash)" as above.

Now scroll back to the top and click on "Mailboxes"which will take you to a page that looks something like this:

HANDLING SUBSCRIBER LIST

Please observe in the above that there are four sub-mailboxes (really folders) that are already created for the "rooty" list. Similarly these will have been created for your list. Next to the "rooty" folder there is in parenthesis (LIST). Click on this which will move you to a page that looks something like the following:

While there are things of interest on this page let's first go to the "Subscribers" page. So click on "Subscription" wherein you will get something like this:

You will note that with this example list there are no subscribers. Many of the lists that were already created with a different program will have already been transferred over so your subscribers will be apparent. Also, any settings that you made for your list should all be intact. If you are starting a list from scratch it will look like the above.

To add a subscriber type in the full name of the subscriber then hit the space bar and type in the email address of the subscriber between these characters: < > . BEFORE pressing the "Subscribe" button however you want to determine how you wish to describe this user.

You will note to the right of the "Subscribe" area another area called"Feedback". If you press on the button you will be presented with three choices:

ask confirmation
send welcome
silently

If this is some sort of "commercial" list then you should always select "ask confirmation" to verify the person truly wants to be on your list. This avoids any possibility of you being accused of spamming since a) the person verified they wanted to be on your list and b) you will have a record of this.

If you don't choose this option, and choose "send welcome" then when you subscribe the person to the list, he/she will be sent an automatic message welcoming them to the list.

I am going to choose to subscribe dave using "ask confirmation".

Adding Dave@corp.intnet.net as a subscriber

Now you see the subscriber's email address and his real name. If you just type in the email address instead of doing what was instructed above, then there will be no way to put in the real name later.

Observe that dave is "unmoderated" meaning that he can posts messages to the list without the list owner scrutinizing them first.

Well, maybe you wouldn't want a new subscriber to do this from the start of at all. So press the button just to the left of "postings" to checkyour options:

Unmoderated
Moderate first
Moderate first 2
Moderate first 3
Moderate first 5
Moderate first 10
Moderate All
Prohibit
Special

It's your list so you choose what's best for you. You can mix and match like I did below:

You will note that "dave" has XXX under the "Posts" column and Javier has "0". Dorine is unmoderated while Dave is prohibited from posting. How did I do this. I merely clicked in the square next to the dave email address, selected "Prohibited" and then clicked the "Set" button next to "Prohibited". Similarly I clicked in the box next to Javier's email, selected unmoderated and then clicked "Set".

Again this is your choice.

The only other issues we need to take up in regards to this particular page are a few other buttons which are "Unsubscribe", "Mark Failed" and the "mode" selection.

First lets look at mode. Press on this button and you will be presented with the following choices:

FEED :In this mode, the subscriber receives list messages as they are posted.

DIGEST :In this mode, the subscriber periodically receives digest messages. A digest message starts with the table Of Content - the list of the messages posted, followed by the posted messages themselves.

INDEX :In this mode, the subscriber periodically receives index messages. An index message is the same as the digest table Of Content, but it does not contain the posted messages themselves. INDEX subscribers can see if they are interested in any posted messages, and use the Web interface to read those messages in the mailing list archive.

NULL :does not receive any messages from the list. This mode can be used by the "posters" - the list users that only post messages on the list.

BANNED :The "banned" users do not receive messages from the list, and they cannot change their subscription mode themselves.

You can use this method to make it impossible for certain users to subscribe to your mailing lists, though usually the more generic anti-spam and other system-wide protection methods should be used.

Unsubscribe :Mark some subscribers and click this button to unsubscribe them from the list. Depending on the current FeedBack setting value, the LIST module will either unsubscribe them immediately or just send them confirmation requests. If the FeedBack setting (see below) value is Send Welcome, the Good Bye messages are sent to unsubscribed addresses.

Mark Failed :Mark some subscribers and click this button to tell the LIST module that mail to those addresses bounced. This can be useful in situations when the LIST module fails to process bounce reports automatically, because they come in a non-standard format. Clicking the Mark Failed button will result in the same actions (increased bounce counter, suspension, and warning generation) as caused by receiving a non-fatal bounce from the marked address.

AUTOMATIC MESSAGES

Note: This applies mainly to folks with lists that are moderated. If you already have had a list set up under the Lyris software and didn't use any auto responder messages this will not apply.

As mentioned earlier when "dave@corp.intnet.net" was subscribed to this example list he was automatically sent a message requesting verification that he really wanted to join the list. Here's what he got:

Date: Tuesday, July 24, 2001 12:44:55PM -0400
From: Rtest administration <Rtest-request@mailsys01.intnet.net>
To: Dave Vondracek <dave@corp.intnet.net>
Subject: Welcome!

This is an automated message from the <Rtest@mailsys01.intnet.net> mailing list manager

You are subscribed to <rooty@mailsys01.intnet.net> as <dave@corp.intnet.net>

To unsubscribe, send any message to: <rooty-off@mailsys01.intnet.net>

To switch to the FEED mode, send any message to <rooty-feed@mailsys01.intnet.net>

To switch to the DIGEST mode, send any message to <rooty-digest@mailsys01.intnet.net>

To switch to the INDEX mode, send any message to <rooty-index@mailsys01.intnet.net>

Send administrative queries to <rooty-request@mailsys01.intnet.net>

He also received a confirmation message:

Date: Tuesday, July 24, 2001 12:44:10PM -0400
From: rooty administration <rooty-feed@mailsys01.intnet.net>
To: Dave Vondracek <dave@corp.intnet.net>
Subject: Confirmation Request (3855604949)

This is an automated message from the <rooty@mailsys01.intnet.net> mailing list manager

Somebody (probably you) have requested the subscribe(feed) operation for your <dave@corp.intnet.net> address.

If you want to confirm this operation, use the Reply command in your mailer.

Check that the Subject of the reply message contains the confirmation ID: 3855604949, the reply is directed to <rooty-feed@mailsys01.intnet.net>, and the 'From' address of your reply is <dave@corp.intnet.net>.

If you do not want to confirm the requested operation, simply do nothing.

All requests about this mailing list should be sent to <rooty-request@mailsys01.intnet.net>

These auto-generated messages are already pre-formatted for you.

MAILBOXES

Now we need to return to the mailboxes, so click on "Mailboxes":

As you can see there is an INBOX for general mail. This will be a common mailbox (really it's a folder) for anyone with a List. The next box down in this example is "rooty" but when you enter your "owner" mailbox it will be labeled the name of your list. When you click on this folder name you will see something like this:

In the example above, you will see the test message which I post to the rooty list. Postings to the list must be sent to listname@lists.intnet.net, not owner-listname@lists.intnet.net. Anything sent to owner-listname@lists.intnet.net will end up the INBOX and will not be sent to subscribers to the list.

You will note on the far left there is a square and then to the right of that is an envelope. If the envelope is closed the message has not been read. If the envelope were open, then that signals that it has been read. If you want to delete a message without opening it, then click in the square next to it and then press the "Delete" button which will move it to the "Trash".

If you want to read a message then click on the senders name and it will open and you will see something like this:

Most buttons are self-explanatory. "Take Address" would put the sender's email in the address book for the web mail application.

"Set Flag" when pressed puts a red flag next to the message in the list of emails signaling that it is important.

The interface looks the same for an individual email when it's opened from what ever mailbox (folder) it is opened from and also the list of messages looks the same from folder to folder.

COMPOSING MESSAGES

When you click on the "Compose" button you will be taken to something that looks like this:

Again there is more to this than can be captured with one screen dump. However, you will note that there is also an internal vertical scroll bar in the composition window itself so you may have to use the overall window horizontal scroll bar as well as the internal one if your message is fairly lengthy.

If you want to compose a message to your list then address it to (listname)@lists.intnet.net.

There are multiple "Send" buttons in the window. Any of them will send the message when you are done composing.

Any messages sent to the list will be stored in the (NameOfYourList) folder.

LISTNAME MAILBOX

This is the mailing list archive: it contains the messages posted on the mailing list.

LISTNAME/requests

The "Listname/requests" mailbox/folder contains postings that require list owner approval (moderated postings) and/or requests to subscribe to the list.

If you approve a posting for the list then when it is open, press the "Forward" button and type into the "To: " field YourListName@lists.intnet.net and then press the "Send" button and the message will be posted.

If you wish to subscribe a new person to the list, then follow the subscription procedure above. Once they are subscribed then go back into the requests folder, open the message from the subscriber just approved, scroll down to the bottom of the message and click on the "select mailbox" button and choose the Listname/approvals mailbox/folder and then click the "Move to" button to move the message to that folder.

If the subscriber was subscribed by automatic subscription then all you would do is move the request to the Listname/approvals mailbox/folder.

LISTNAME/reports

The "Listname/reports folder" will store reports of any bounces and other DSN (Delivery Status Notification) messages generated for the messages distributed via this mailing list.

IMPORTING SUBSCRIBER LISTS

You can use text files with E-mail addresses to add subscribers to mailing lists. Open the Subscribers page, and use the Import control to select a file with E-mail addresses. Click the Subscribe button to add the addresses to the mailing list.

The text file should have one E-mail address per line, with several optional fields on each line. If a line contains several fields, they should be separated with the tabulation (TAB) symbol.

The first and the only required field is the E-mail address.

The second field specifies the subscription mode. The first field symbol is checked. The symbols d and D require the DIGEST mode, the symbols I and i - the INDEX mode, and the letters f and F - the FEED mode. All other field symbols are ignored. If the first symbol is not recognized or the field is absent, the new user is subscribed in the Mailing List default mode.

The last field (if a line contains more than 2 fields) specifies the real name of the new user.

The Mailing List manager checks the file format first. If the file format is incorrect, no new user is subscribed. This allows you to fix the file format and to try the same file: either all addresses are added, or none is added.

Note: Some versions of the Netscape® browser for MacOS® do not convert the MacOS text files (that use the CR symbol as the line separator) into CR-LF delimited text files. You may see the "format error" messages if you try to import a subscriber list from a MacOS computer using that browser. You should either use a different browser, or you should convert the subscriber list into a CR-LF delimited text file before importing it with that browser.

Note: If you are moving users from a different mailing list system, make sure you have set the Feedback option to Silently - otherwise all inserted subscribers will receive confirmation requests and/or Welcome messages.