Mailman's general options allow you to specify most of the ways that your
mail list will interact with the web server and how it will
present itself to the users. The text in the "setting"
should match the different characteristics listed under General
Features. The description content provides a brief description
of each setting as well as guidelines for use when appropriate.
| Setting |
Description |
| The public name of this list (make case-changes
only). |
This is the name by which the list will be referred
to in all automatically generated messages as well as on the listing of
lists available on the server. Note that this name must match the name of
the list as it was created -- you may only change the case of the name in
this field. |
| The list admin's email address - having multiple
admins/addresses (on separate lines) is ok. |
This field should contain the e-mail address of the
list administrator. The list administrator will receive all administrative
messages generated by the server as well as any requests that require approval
(postings to moderated lists or requests to subscribe to non-open lists).
Note: the persons listed as administrators do not automatically receive
copies of list traffic. If they want to participate in the list they must
also add their address as a subscriber. |
| A terse phrase identifying this list. |
This phrase will appear in two places: on the general
listinfo page showing all of the lists hosted on the server, and in the
header of all messages sent through the list itself. This value is best
kept short. |
| An introductory description - a few paragraphs
- about the list. It will be included, as html, at the top of the listinfo
page. Carriage returns will end a paragraph. |
This information will be included at the top of the
listinfo page for this list. In cases where the listinfo page is used to
entice people to join the list you would want to use this setting to provide
a detailed description of the purpose and nature of the list. |
| Prefix for subject line of list postings. |
This value will be added to the beginning of the subject
line of all list traffic in order to help members identify/filter list traffic.
By default the value is the name of the list enclosed in [square brackets].
You may modify this value to something other than the name of the list.
|
| List-specific text prepended to new-subscriber
welcome message. |
When new users join your list, or when they are added
by the list manager, they receive a note welcoming them to the list and
telling them about their password and list-related URLs. Text contained
in this box will be prepended to the generic technical information so that
you can let them know about specific procedures or protocols related to
their participation in the list. |
| Text sent to people leaving the list. If empty,
no special text will be added to the unsubscribe message. |
This is your last chance to get a word in when people
leave your list. |
| Are replies to a post directed to the original
poster or to the list? Poster is strongly recommended. |
When poster is selected, the reply-to line will be
written by Mailman so that persons hitting reply in their mail program will
send their response back to the individual who posted the note. When this
value is set to list, the reply-to line will be rewritten so that persons
hitting reply in their mail program will send their response back to the
list itself. While the program suggests that this be set to poster, you
should consider the purpose of the list in selecting this value. Lists that
intend to focus on discussion are best set to "list" to encourage
conversation. Lists used for announcements are best set to poster to prevent
unwanted traffic and the inadvertent broadcast of replies. |
| (Administrative filter) Check postings and
intercept ones that seem to be administrative requests? |
If you activate this feature Mailman will check traffic
for administrative requests that have inadvertently been sent to the list.
This will prevent the classic case of a user sending a note to the entire
list membership saying "unsubscribe." |
| Send password reminders to, eg, "-owner"
address instead of directly to user. |
This is a setting that Mailman refers to internally
as the "umbrella list" setting. If your list does not actually
consist of people but instead of lists (so that messages cascade from this
"umbrella" down into the constituent lists) then you want this
setting to be yes. This means that the password and subscription information
will not be sent to all of the members of the constituent list, but instead
to the list owner alone. |
| Suffix for use when this list is an umbrella
for other lists, according to setting of previous "umbrella_list"
setting. |
When using your list as an umbrella list as mentioned
above, this setting is what will be used to specify who the owners of the
constituent lists are. While -owner is not universal, it will cover the
conventions used by most of the mail list managers that are used today (and
will work with Mailman lists). |
| Send monthly password reminders or no? Overrides
the previous option. |
When set to yes, list members will receive an automatically
generated monthly posting reminding them of their password as well as the
URLs to access their list configuration options. This will save you're a
lot of time as administrator as it will let users solve a lot of their own
problems. |
| Send welcome message when people subscribe?
|
When set to yes people who join the list or who are
added by the list administrator will receive an automatically generated
welcome message with information including the list address, their password,
and the URLs needed to access their list preferences. |
| Should administrator get immediate notice
of new requests, as well as daily notices about collected ones? |
This setting dictates the frequency with which the
list administrator is told of pending administrative requests: either notes
awaiting moderator approval or subscription request for controlled lists.
By default the server will send a daily reminder of the pending requests.
If the list owner would like more immediate notification then they should
check "yes" here for immediate notice of each request. The notification
that you receive will include a URL that will take you to the pending administrative
requests page detailed near the end of this document. |
| Should administrator get notices of subscribes/unsubscribes?
|
Because list membership is checked easily through the
web, the list manager may not feel that it is necessary to know of all of
the comings and goings of list members (especially on large lists with a
lot of turnover). Saying yes here will tell Mailman to send a short note
to the list manager for each person that is added or removed from the list.
Note: Mailman does not currently let the list manager block persons from
leaving the list. If you are running a list for something like a course
or committee, where participation is mandatory, make sure to have this set
this to "yes" so you will be informed of unauthorized departures.
Note: If you are migrating large lists over to Mailman, or if you are creating
new lists using the mass subscribe feature, you may want to deactivate this
initially so that the manager is not flooded with innumerable subscribe
notices. |
| Send mail to poster when their posting is held
for approval? |
Setting this option to yes will send a short "we
have your message and it is awaiting approval" note to persons whose
postings are being held for approval. This is a useful "courtesy"
and will help people on moderated lists from wondering why their note never
showed up. This message will also be sent to non-members who attempt
to post to lists that allow posting for members only. |
| Maximum length in Kb of a message body. Use
0 for no limit. |
This setting will allow you to specify the maximum
size of messages allowed to be passed through the list to the subscribers.
This is an important security measure as it allows you to block a malicious
poster from bombing everyone's list with a large file and it prevents your
server from being tied up delivering inappropriately large messages.
If you do not wish to have a limit on the size of message, set this value
to 0. |
| Number of outgoing connections to open at once
(expert users only). |
This is the number of parallel connections that Mailman
will open to deliver traffic on the list. Only system administrators should
modify this value. |
| Host name this list prefers. |
For multi-home hosts (systems that have different aliases)
this would be the value that Mailman uses to identify itself. You should
not attempt to modify this value without consulting your system administrator
or Mailman may cease to work. |
| Base URL for Mailman web interface. |
This is the base portion of the Mailman URL that will
be prepended to all of the pointers to specific web features. You should
not attempt to modify this value without consulting your system administrator
or Mailman may cease to work. |
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