1. I sent an email to a list that I am subscribed to but it was rejected. The list sent me a message stating that only subscribers to the list could post messages and that my message was being held for approval. Why does this happen when I am already subscribed to the list?

Check that the 'from' address set in your email software is the same address that you used when subscribing to the list. Many people have more than one email address and a list will only allow you to post messages from the address you used to subscribe to the list.

If you want to use multiple email accounts with a list you will need to subscribe to the list with each 'from' address that you want to use. Subscribing to a list with more than one 'from' address will cause the list to send a message to both accounts unless you access the subscriber options and select 'disable delivery' for your duplicate addresses. Even if delivery to the duplicate address is disabled you will be able to post to the list with the duplicate 'from' address.

2. When I send a message to the list that has a file attached, the file isn't there when people receive the message. Where did the file go?

Attaching files to an email being sent to a mailing list is generally considered as poor practice. Most people expect the information you are sending to be in the message itself and will ignore file attachments as they can contain virus files or spam. Files attachments can also be large and some people on the list may not have the software required to open or view the file. Sending file attachments to a list with hundreds of users is a good way to annoy those on the list who do not want the attachment. To address these issues, attachments will automatically be removed from messages and a copy of the file will be saved on the server. The file attachment will be replaced with a link in your message. Users may click on the link in your message if they want to download/view the file you have sent.

If you have a need to send file attachments consider converting them to pdf files as this format can be read by anyone with the free Acrobat reader software, is secure and typically much smaller in size than other formats. If your software doesn't have the option to save files in pdf format you might want to try downloading the free PrimoPDF file converter software. You can even convert your files on their website if you prefer not to install the software on your computer.

3. How do I add the email addresses and the real names of subscribers to my list?

The best way to add subscribers to your mailing list is to let them sign themselves up using your list's home web page. If you want to subscribe a user's email address or several addresses at once use the 'Mass Subscription' option in the 'Membership Management' area of the administrative web page for your list. Remember that you can associate a users real name with their email address by using the following format when adding subscribers:

The list for a mass subscribe can contain lines in any of the following formats:

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
< This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Jane Doe < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
"Jane Doe" < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (Jane Doe)

4. I haven't been able to access my email for a while but I would like to see what messages have been sent to the list. Is there a way that I can view list messages on the web?

Each CommunityLists mailing list includes a web based archive that users may access with their password. The link to the web archive is located on the list's home page. The archive is fully indexed each night to enable messages to be searched. The archives are organised by month and can be sorted by subject, date or author.

5. I thought that when a user sends email to a list that they would receive a copy of the message in their own email. I have never received a message that I have sent to the list even though others have told me that they received the message.

Unless a user changes their subscriber options, any messages they send to lists will be sent to their email address as well. Most users prefer this as it gives them confirmation that their message was sent successfully. Users of Google's Gmail service will not receive a copy of messages they send to mailing lists regardless of any settings made to their subscriber options. This limitation is imposed by Gmail and can not altered. Users of Gmail may wish to set the subscriber option 'Receive acknowledgment mail when you send mail to the list?' to 'Yes' if they want the list to send them a separate confirmation message when they send messages to lists.

6. I'm finding that it takes a lot of time to administer my mailing list. Between deleting all the spam email that is sent to the list and approving subscriptions it's taking up a lot of time. Is there an easier way to deal with these tasks?

You bet. CommunityLists are set by default to hold any mail sent to your list from non-subscribers. This is foremost a measure to prevent unwanted email from being distributed to the list. But it does mean that at some point someone will have to either approve or delete the messages which can be very time consuming. Here are two tricks to speed that process up.

One suggestion is to considering setting the time period that pending requests are held. For example, if you are confident that either an administrator or a moderator will always have the opportunity to deal with pending requests within 7 days then set the pending requests time period to 8 days. Then any requests to review an item being held will automatically be removed in 8 days. This setting is the last item in 'General Options' in the "Discard held messages older than this number of days" option.

Another approach some administrators use is to change the hold mail setting to the option of sending non-subscriber mail directly to the administrator. Then the administrator simply needs to ensure that their email program filters spam properly and only legitimate requests will remain in the administrators mail which can then be forwarded on to the list. If this method is used then administrators will never have to use the administrative web page to approve or delete messages sent to the list by non-subscribers.

As for the second time consuming task of approving/disapproving new subscriptions to the list, consider letting subscribers sign up to the list themselves without administrative approval being required. If you stop to think about it mailing lists are self selective in that a person isn't going to subscribe to a list unless they have an interest in the list topic. If you are concerned that new subscribers might post inappropriate messages you can set the list to accept subscriptions automatically but to hold the first message for administrator approval. This does increase your workload in that you will have to approve first postings but it does give you a feel for whether the subscriber understands the nature of the list and is posting appropriate messages.

If you choose to allow auto subscription please ensure you set your list subscription policy in the privacy options from "Require approval" to "Confirm". Once this change is made users will be able to subscribe themselves from the list info page. They will be required to confirm their subscription by returning an automated system generated message. This measure ensures that people can not be subscribed to lists without their knowledge and consent.

7. Can list subscribers tell who else is subscribed to the list? If so, can't they use this information to send me spam email?

Each list has a public information page. The info page has an option to display all the addresses subscribed to that list. All CommunityLists are set by default to allow only other subscribers of a list access to this information. The addresses displayed are in a format that does not allow automatic harvesting of the addresses however there is certainly nothing stopping a list subscriber from manually changing the addresses and using them to send out spam mail. All subscribers have the option to not display their address in this list if that is what they desire. The option can be changed by accessing their subscription options using the username and password the list sent them when they subscribed.

8. Oddly enough some of my list subscribers are complaining that they get too many email messages now that they are on a mailing list. Is there some way to make the increase in email messages they are receiving more manageable for them?

There are at least two ways to handle large amounts of any email traffic that users typically find very helpful in this respect. The first is to configure your email software to filter any messages from a list to a separate folder automatically. Almost all email software now allows users to right click on a message and define a 'rule' to move messages with certain characteristics to a specific folder. This is the exact reason why the list software inserts the name of the list in square brackets in to the subject line of all messages sent to the list. For example, if the name of the list is case-test you can use the filtering options in your email software to create a rule that sends all messages that contain the phrase [case-test] in the subject line to a separate folder. This will then automatically place all messages from the list in to a specific folder allowing the user to review them at a later date and keeping them messages from cluttering up their 'In Box' folder.

Another option available to users from their subscriber web page is to change the delivery option from 'Immediate' to 'Digest'. Users that select to receive messages sent to the list in digest form will receive one email per day (typically overnight) that contains all the messages sent to the list that day. Some users love digests and others do not. Therefore the Mailman software gives subscribers to your list the option to receive list messages either way. However, list administrators can use the administrator web page to disable giving subscribers the option of having list mail sent in digest mode.

9. Will joining a mailing list increase my chances of receiving spam or a message with a virus in it?

One of the reasons CommunityLists uses the Mailman software is because it has been around for many years and extensive work has been done to include anti-spam measures in to it. The default settings provided are intentionally conservative to provide the maximum privacy and limit the availability of the list to public viewing. This is also why we stress that list owners should be very careful of changing default setting unless they have taken the time to fully understand the ramifications of making changes.

Many users have computers that send out infected email messages even without their knowledge. This is why it is so important that all users keep their anti-virus/anti-spyware software up to date and also need to ensure that their computer systems are configured to automatically update and apply security patches as required. These two steps alone will keep most systems very safe.

It is entirely possible for an infected message to be sent to a mailing list. To prevent the infection from being distributed to other list subscribers the CommunityLists server scans all email messages and file attachments before final delivery. You may receive an email at some point in time with a notice from the scanning software indicating that a dangerous attachment or dangerous content has been removed. In most cases these email messages are totally blocked and you will never see them, but if there is useful content remaining in the message and the dangerous content has been successfully removed the software is configured to deliver the message with an explanation included. The scanning software used by CommunityLists to remove dangerous content from email is very sophisticated and is used successfully world wide to block the delivery of dangerous content via email systems. In years of using it on many servers we have yet to see a single infected email message passed on to a user.

10. I replied to a message sent to a list but my reply only went to the author of that email message rather than to the entire list. Why didn't my message go to all the list subscribers?

List administrators can set their lists to behave in two different manners in regards to where 'reply' messages are delivered. All CommunityLists are set to deliver replies to only the person who posted the original message. If a user wants a reply to go to all the subscribers of a list they must explicitly enter the list email address in to the 'To:' box of their message.

This may sound like an odd way to configure the software but years of experience has shown that users (most often new users) assume that when they compose a reply message it will only go to the person that posted the message. When users assume a reply is being sent only to the user who posted the message they may intend the message to be private. It only takes one of these messages being sent to all list subscribers by mistake to cause extreme embarrassment and/or upset a lot of the list subscribers. Every list administrator who has had the unfortunate experience of managing a list where replies were automatically addressed to the entire list will have at least one horror story to share regarding a difficult situation caused by this choice of configuration options.

Trust us, this topic is one of the most common discussions regarding how mailing lists operate and the only way to prevent it is to set the list software so that replies go only to the poster of the list message being replied to. Users learn very quickly that posts that are intended for all subscribers must be manually addressed to the list address so it's really not an issue to require this extra step.