Maillist Intro
	Mailing Lists
	Policies and Etiquette
		Who can create mailing lists?
		Mailing list guidelines at SFU
		Appropriate use of mailing lists at SFU
	Create a new maillist
		Maillist names
		Subscription Policies
		Create a Moderated List
		How are maillists activated?
	Create a Courselist
		Select a Course and Section
		Select end-of-semester Processing Options
		Set the Courselist Name
		Final Review
	Create an Academic Plan List
		Select Academic Plans
		Review the List
	Searching for a maillist
		Finding the lists you own
		Finding the lists you are a member of
		Other ways to search
			Finding lists by name
			Finding lists by description
			Finding lists containing a member
		Viewing Search Results
	Joining a maillist
	Resigning from a maillist
	Deleting a maillist
	Changing a list owner
		Transfer Initiated by Owner
		Transfer Initiated by Manager
		Transer Initiated by Non-Owner
		Accepting ownership of a maillist
		Declining ownership of a maillist
		Approving a new owner
	Modifying List Members
		Adding and Deleting Members
		Adding Members From a File
		Adding a Manager
		Modifying the Allowed and Denied Senders
	Sender Restrictions
		Restricted sender
		Allow members to send
		Handling of Unauthorized Senders
		Limiting Message Size
	Changing other list information
		Change list description
		Subscription Policies
		Setting Moderator
		Setting an Error Handling Address
		Handling Email to "-request"
		Deliver to Members
		Hidden List
		Suspending Delivery
		Change list note
		Change list welcome
		Setting Copy on Send
		Setting Maximum Spam Level
	Controlling Spam

Introduction to Maillist

Maillist is a web application for managing lists of email addresses. It is specifically designed to simplify managing lists of SFU addresses for course-related mailing lists. Maillist allows you to easily create and manage any number of mailing lists.

The Table of Contents

When you sign onto Maillist, the first page you see is the Table of Contents. You have the following options:

Create a new maillist

Create a standard mailing list.

Create a new courselist

Steps you through the process of creating a course-based mailing list.

Create a new Academic Plan list

Steps you through the process of creating a mailing list which includes students in an academic plan.

Find maillist owned by me

Displays a list of mailing lists you own.

Find maillists owned/managed by me

Displays a list of mailing lists for which you have owner or manager permission.

Find maillist to which I belong

Displays a list of mailing lists to which you belong.

Find maillist which deliver to me

Shows all the mailing lists which deliver mail to you.

Search for maillists

Takes you to a generic search page which has other search options.

Preferences

Allows you to set some Maillist preferences.

For more information on creating maillists see the following topics:

• Create a new maillist
• Create a Courselist
• Create a new Academic Plan list

For more information on searching see the Searching for a maillist topic.

Navigating in Maillist

Most pages in the Maillist application have a Back button which will take you to the previous page. You will often see a Cancel button, which will cancel the current operation and take you to the previous page, or back to the start of a multi-page operation.

In the upper right corner of the page is a Logout button. Be sure to logout, especially if you are on a public machine, such as in one of the labs.

Just below the Logout button is a popup menu labeled Go Back To.... This will allow you to return to any page in the path that you took to get to the current page.

Beside the navigation popup is the Help link (which you must have clicked to get here!) The Help system is contextual, so you will be taken to a different help page, depending on which page you were on when you clicked the link.

Finally, the Feedback link gives you the opportunity to send comments on the Maillist program. When you click the Feedback link you will be taken to a WebSurvey form, with which you can send your comments.

Mailing Lists

Often you need to send electronic mail messages to the same group of people. Rather than address each message to all the recipients, you can create an electronic mailing list (e-mail list). Any message addressed to a mailing list is automatically sent to all the members of the list.

To determine the appropriate mechanism for creating a mailing list, ask yourself whether the list should be public or private. A private list is one only you can send messages to. If this is the type of list you wish to create, use one of the following mechanisms instead of mailing lists created by this web page

• in Mutt, use a group alias. See the Mutt user manual for details.
• in Eudora, use nicknames. See the Eudora manual for details.
• in WebMail, use the address book. Use the WebMail help button to get more details.

A public list is one that can be used by more than one person. With the SFU Maillist facility, you can create three types of electronic lists: maillists, courselists, and academic plan lists.

A standard maillist is one in which the membership in the list is manually maintained. The owner can set options to control who can join the list, and who can send to the list. For example, an open list can be created which allows anyone to join. The list email-questions is a typical example. Anyone who is interested in questions and answers related to e-mail at SFU can add themselves to this open public list.

A courselist only allows the owner (or managers) to add members. However, a courselist automatically includes all students registered in a particular course, i.e., you do not have to enter students' e-mail addresses manually. A courselist will remain active and kept up to date as long as the owner account is active. For that reason it is recommended that courselists be owned by (created by) long-term staff or faculty, for example, Departmental Assistants, or by a departmental account (contact ACS to set up a sponsored departmental account). Course lists are restricted sender (by default members are allowed to send). Here are the full details on course lists.

An Academic Plan list is similar to a courselist, but it automatically includes all students who are declared in a particular Academic Plan. For example, MATHMAJ for math majors. Again, Academic Plan lists should be owned by long-term staff or faculty.

Policies and Etiquette

This topic contains general information about mailing list policies at SFU.

Who can create mailing lists at SFU?

First, note that University policy GP24, Fair use of Information Resources governs the use of all computing systems at SFU, including mailing lists.

Please note, if you just need a list for a group of friends, create an address book entry in your e-mail program, rather than creating a mailing list.

Mailing list guidelines at SFU

Mailing lists are intended to be used in support of scholarly or work-related activity, in accordance with University policy GP-24. When a list is created, it is activated by an ACS staff member, generally within 24 hours, and you will be notified by e-mail whether or not the list has been activated. Lists that have no apparent connection to any scholarly or work-related activity will not be activated.

Courselists and Academic Plan lists will be automatically activated when they are created.

Lists created by students will only be activated if they clearly relate to course work, a SFSS-recognised club, or a student union. The course name or club should appear in the list name, and the description should clearly indicate the purpose of the list.

The web conferencing system Caucus is a possible alternative to a mailing list.

List names

Mailing list names should indicate the purpose of a list. A good name encourages relevant contributions, discourages irrelevant mail from people who have nothing to do with the list, and generally helps to keep nuisance mail to a minimum.

The following will not be activated:

1. list names containing profanity
2. list names that are attempting to masquerade as some other entity in the system
3. list names that are silly, frivolous or appear to have no relationship to any scholarly activity.

Note that there may be list names in the system that would not pass the above guidelines. They were activated before these guidelines were developed and should not be construed as evidence that a similar name will be accepted in future. Lists that existed prior to these guidelines may remain in the system as long as they do not cause any problems.

Appropriate use of mailing lists at SFU

• Never add someone into a mailing list without their consent.
• Keep the volume of mail as low as possible; the e-mail system is a shared resource with limits on processing power and disk space.
• Think through whether a reply needs to go back to the whole list; often a reply need go back to the sender only.
• It is never approproate to send mail that is unrelated to the purpose of the list.
• If someone sends unwelcome mail to the list, send a "please stop" reply back to the sender of the message only, not to the whole list. The idea is to give the sender negative feedback, not to deluge everyone else with junk mail.
• If the discussion on a mailing list has gone badly off-track, it might help for the owner of the list to send a message restating the purpose of the list.

Create a new maillist

When creating a new maillist, you must supply 3 things:

You can optionally select whether you want to be added as a member of the list. Of course, you can always subscribe or unsubscribe from the list after it is created.

By default new maillists are restricted sender and members of the list are allowed to send to it. To change this see the help topic Changing other list information below.

Click the Create the List button to create the list. You will be taken to the Maillist Info page for the list, where you can customize the list options.

The list is activated by an ACS staff member, generally within 24 hours. You will be notified by e-mail whether or not the list has been activated. Lists that have no apparent connection to any scholarly or work-related activity will not be activated.

Maillist names

The maillist name must be unique, it cannot have embedded blanks, it must contain only letters and numbers, and it must include a hyphen. It should also be in lower-case only. For example, the name new-list is valid, but new list, new_list and x&y-list are not.

Make the mailing list name descriptive, but as short as possible for ease of use. Names can be a maximum of 128 characters long. If you enter a name that is already in use, it will be rejected and you will be reprompted for a list name.

Certain names may conflict with automatically created aliases. To prevent such conflicts, you cannot create a list name that begins with "owner-" or "error-", or ends with "-request" or "-archive".

Subscription Policies

There are 2 attributes which control who is allowed to subscribe to a maillist, and how they can subscribe. They are:

1. Subscription Policy for SFU Users
2. Subscription Policy for Non-SFU Users

The two subscription policies are set via popup menus with the following options:

Anyone can subscribe

A user of this type (SFU or Non-SFU) can subscribe without requiring approval of the owner.

Owner/manager approves subscription requests

The user may subscribe, but they won't actually be subscribed until the owner (or manager) approves it.

Only owner/manager can subscribe members

The user won't see any Subscribe button. Only the owner or manager can add members.

There are other options which affect how users can subscribe to a maillist. These can be set after the maillist is activated.

Create a Moderated List

A moderated maillist is one for which some or all of the email sent to the list is forwarded to a person for review before being posted to the list. To set up a moderated list, create your maillist, courselist, or academic plan list, then set the following options.

Now, all messages sent to the maillist or its "-request" address will be forwarded to the designated moderator.

How are maillists activated?

Courselists and Academic Plan lists are automatically activated when they are created.

Other maillists must be activated by the SFU Postmaster before you can send mail to them. You will be notified by e-mail when your list has been accepted. It may take up to 30 minutes from the time the list is accepted before you can send messages to the list.

The Postmaster reserves the right to reject names that are profane, obscene, silly or frivolous. Experience indicates that such names tend to attract nuisance or offensive mail. You may be asked to choose another name for your list.

Create a Courselist

Courselists are mailing lists which automatically include all students registered in a particular course. To create a courselist, click the Create a new courselist link on the Table of Contents. You will be guided through the following steps:

By default courselists are restricted sender lists, and members are not allowed to send to the list. If you want the students of a courselist to be able to send to the list, you will have to change the Sender Restrictions.

Select a Course/Section

If a courselist for the selected course already exists, you will be shown the current list so that you can view its settings.

Select End-of-semester Processing Options

Select some options which control how the maillist is managed at the end of each semester.

Courselist Rollover

The members of a courselist are automatically generated from the student roster for the course. You may set up the list so that it always includes the students from a specific semester, or you can have the members rolled over at the end of each semester. When that happens, the student members of the list are replaced with the students from the new semester.

To do this, check the Automatically roll over the course roster each semester check box. The course roster will be updated each semester on Dec 23, Apr 23, and Aug 23 (approximately).

When a courselist is set up, the instructors (if they are known) are automatically added as members. You can also have the instuctors automatically updated by checking the Automatically update the instructor members checkbox. If this is checked, the instructors will be updated whenever they change.

Backup old courselist

When the courselist is updated with the next semester's students, you can have a copy of the old courselist saved for you by checking the Save a snapshot of the previous semester's courselist checkbox. The snapshot of the old list will be renamed with the semester added to the name.

When you have selected the processing options, click the Continue button.

Set the Courselist Name

A courselist name is automatically generated from the course, section, and semester. If the list has been set up for a single semester, then the semester will be part of the name. For example, acma490-d100-spring06. If the list has been configured to automatically update with each semester's new students, then the name will not include the semester. For example, acma490-d100.

Changing the name from the default one is strongly discouraged.

Final Review

This is a chance to go back and change any of the settings. You can also specify whether you want to be made a member of the list. (Of course, you can always add yourself to the list after it's created.)

Click the Create button to create the list. This may take a while if the course has a large number of students. Once the list is created, it will be automatically activated, and the Maillist Info page will be displayed. When this page is displayed, the list is available for use.

Create an Academic Plan list

Academic Plan lists are mailing lists which automatically include all students in a declared Academic Plan. To create an Academic Plan list, click the Create a new Academic Plan list link in the Table of Contents. You will be guided through the following steps:

Select Academic Plans

Review the Plan List

A list name and description will be automatically generated, based on the academic plan(s) you have chosen. It is strongly recommended that you leave these as is.

The review page shows the subscription policies, and sending restrictions. The settings are recommended for Academic Plan lists, but you can change them after the list is activated if you choose.

On this page, you can choose to be added as a member of the list. Of course, you can always add yourself as a member later.

Click the Create the List button to create the list. This may take anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes, depending on the number of students in the academic plans that you have included. Once the list has been set up, it will be automatically activated, and the Maillist Info page will be displayed. When this page is displayed, the list is available for use.

Searching for a maillist

To do any work with a maillist (apart from creating it) you need to find the maillist. The following help topics describe various ways to search for a maillist. If more than one list matches your search, you will be presented with a list of all that matched. You can select the list you wish to work with by clicking on its name. This will give a detailed description of the list you selected.

If only one list matched your search, you will be put directly into the detailed description for that list.

If you know the name of the list you want, you can jump directly to it by entering the name in the text field on the Table of Contents page, and hitting enter (or clicking the Go button).

Finding the lists you own or manage

To get a list of all the maillists that you own, you would select Find maillists owned by me from the list of maillist topics.

To get a list of all the maillists for which you have manager access, you would select Find maillists owned/managed by me from the list of topics. Note that as of May 15, 2007 the search results include lists that you own.

Finding the lists you are a member of

To get a list of all the maillists that you are currently a member of, select Find maillists I am a member of from the list of maillist topics. Note that this only includes maillists to which you directly belong. It does not search through embedded maillists.

Sometimes you get messages from a maillist of which you are not an immediate member. This is because a maillist that you belong to has been included in another maillist. To get a list of all the maillists to which you belong including embedded maillists, select Find maillists which deliver to me from the list of maillist topics.

The result page will show two lists of maillists. The first is the list of maillists to which you belong. The second is a list of maillists which deliver mail to you because they include a list to which you belong. You can display the embedded maillist(s) by clicking the triangle to the left of the maillist name. Maillists may be nested arbitrarily deep.

Other ways to search for mail lists

If you want to search for mail lists by name or description, you would click on "Search for maillists". The following help topics describe how to use the search page.

Finding lists by name

To find a maillist by name, select with name like: from the popup menu. Type the list name in the search text field that follows the popup menu and press the Search button.

If you only know part of the maillist name that you are searching for, type that much in the search text field. A list of all the maillists whose name contains what you typed will be returned.

You can use asterisks as "wild card" characters. So to find all the mail lists that start with cmpt, you would type cmpt* in the search field.

Finding lists by description

Maillists contain a short description of the purpose of the list. To get a list of all the maillists that have a particular word in the description, select whose description contains: from the popup menu.

Then type a word or phrase in the search text field that follows the popup menu and press the Search button. You will be shown all the mail lists that have the word or phrase in their description.

Finding lists containing a member

To find the lists that a particular member belongs to, select containing the member: from the popup menu. Then type the email address of the person you are searching for in the text field that follows the popup menu, and press the search button.

Note that only mail lists for which you are the owner or manager will be searched.

Viewing Search Results

After a search completes, if there is more than one maillist to display, the lists are shown on the Search Result page. Each list is displayed on one row with the following items:

Printer icon:

Click to see a printer-friendly display of the maillist details.

Maillist name:

Click the maillist name to go to the detail page for the maillist.

Owner:

The owner of the list. (In bold if it is you)

Member:

Indicates whether you are a member of the list, with Subscribe/Unsubscribe button.

Allowed to Send:

Indicates whether you are allowed to send to the list.

Description:

A short description of the list.

On the result page there is also a Back button which takes you back to the previous page. You should use this Back button rather than your browser's back button.

If only one list matches the search criteria, you will be taken directly to the detail page for the list.

Joining a maillist

Once you have found a maillist to join (see Searching for a maillist in a previous help topic), you can join that maillist by pressing the Subscribe button on either the Search Results page or the detail page for the list.

If the maillist allows self-subscription, you will become a member of the list immediately.

If the maillist restricts who is allowed to join, you may not be able to join the list directly. In that case you may be added as a pending member, and an email message will be sent on your behalf to the list owner asking that you be added to the list. Before the email message is sent, it will be presented to you so that you can modify it if needed. You would then press the Send the message button to have the email sent to the owner, or Cancel to halt the whole process.

If the list allows email subscriptions, you can join it by sending email to listname-request@sfu.ca (where listname is the name of the mailing list) with the subject subscribe. You will be sent a confirmation email. To complete the subscription process, click Reply in your email client and send the reply. Do not edit the subject line. If the confirmation was successful, you will get a welcome message from the maillist.

Resigning from a maillist

Once you have found a maillist that you are a member of (see Searching for a maillist in a previous help topic), you can resign from that maillist by pressing the Unsubscribe button on either the Search Results page or the detail page for the list.

If the maillist allows self-subscription, you will be dropped from the list immediately.

Otherwise, you will be given a warning that once you have resigned from the list, you will need the permission of the owner to join again. At this point you can press the Unsubscribe from list button to really quit the list, or Cancel to remain a member of the list.

If the list allows email subscribe/unsubscribe, you can unsubscribe from it by sending email to listname-request@sfu.ca (where listname is the name of the mailing list) with the subject unsubscribe. You will be sent a confirmation email. To complete the unsubscribe process, click Reply in your email client and send the reply. Do not edit the subject line. You will get an email to let you know if the unsubscribe operation was successful.

Deleting a maillist

Once you have found a maillist that you own (see Searching for a maillist in a previous help topic), display the detail page for the list by clicking the list name in the Search Result page. (If your search only finds one list you will be taken directly to the detail page for that list.) You can then delete the maillist by clicking the Delete button.

You will be given one last chance to change your mind. If you choose Delete, the list will be deleted. If you choose Cancel the list will be left alone.

Changing a list owner

The ownership of a list may be transferred to another person. If the computing id of the current owner is active, transfer of ownership is a two-step process which may be initiated either by the owner of the list, or by an existing manager of the list who wants to take over ownership.

If the owner's computing id has expired, ownership of the list may be requested by a manager or any current member of the list (provided they are permitted to own the list).

Changing the owner of a list is a two step process. The first step is to offer the maillist to someone else. To do this, search for the list and display the detail page. Then click the Transfer... button. Enter the computing id that you want to make the new owner. Once you press the Transfer button, the prospective new owner will be sent an email message explaining that the list is being offered to them, and explaining step two.

The second step is for the new owner to accept the maillist. The next help topics describe accepting or declining a maillist.

Transfer Initiated by Owner

To transfer a list to another user, you have to specify the user, then that user must accept ownership of the list.

An email will be sent to the computing id to inform them that the transfer has been initiated. To complete the transfer, they will have to log in and accept ownership of the list.

Transfer Initiated by Manager

A manager of a list may request ownership of the list.

If the owner account is active, the button will change to the text Pending transfer to id (where id is your computing id), and an email will be sent to the owner to inform them that you have requested ownership. To complete the transfer, they will have to log in and approve it.

If the owner account is inactive, the list ownership will be immediately transferred to the requesting account.

Transfer Initiated by Non-Owner

If you are a member of a list with no active owner or manager, you will get notified that the list is going to expire. If you want to keep the list active, and are willing to take on the responsibility of owning the list, you can take ownership.

The ownership of the list will immediately be transferred to you.

Accepting ownership of a maillist

If the owner of a list has initiated transfer of the list ownership to you, you will get an email to that effect. To complete the ownership transfer:

An email message will be sent to the previous owner to let them know that you are now the owner of the list.

Declining ownership of a maillist

If the owner of a list has initiated transfer of the list ownership to you, you will get an email to that effect. To cancel the ownership transfer:

An email message will be sent to the current owner of the list to let them know that you have refused to take over ownership of the list.

Approving a new owner

If you own a list, and one of the managers of the list requests ownership, you can approve or reject the ownership transfer.

To approve the transfer, click the Approve button, then click the Save Changes button. An email will be sent to the new owner to tell them the transfer has been done.

To reject the transfer, click the Reject button, then click the Save Changes button. An email will be sent to the new owner to tell them the transfer has been cancelled.

Changing the members of a list

Once you have found a list that you are the owner or a manager of (see Searching for a maillist in a previous help topic), you can modify the list members by clicking the Maillist Members tab at the top of the page.

You will be presented with a list of the current members of the list. For large numbers of members you will be shown only some of the members at a time. You can page through the members using the page forward and back arrows at the right of the page, or by typing in a member address in the search field and clicking on the Find button.

The list of members shows the following information for each member:

Member Address

The email address, in the form it was entered.

Type

The type of list member.

• Local - an SFU address
• Maillist - an embedded maillist
• External - a non-SFU address

For Courselists, the type field will also indicate if the address is an instructor in the course.

Deliver To User

Checkbox indicating whether mail will be delivered to this address.

Allowed To Send?

Checkbox indicating whether this address is allowed to send to the list.

Manager

Checkbox indicating whether this address is a manager of the list.

In addition to the Allowed To Send checkboxes on the Maillist members tab, there are Allowed Senders tab and Denied Senders tabs. These let you edit the Allow and Deny lists directly. (See Editing Allow and Deny lists)

Any changes to the members will make the Save Changes and Discard Changes buttons appear. When you are finished modifying members, you would press the Save Changes button to save the changes. Pressing the Discard Changes button would throw away all the changes you have made since the last save.

You can click the Back button to go back to the previous page (usually the Search Results page). If you have unsaved changes when you click the Back button, you will be presented with a dialog in which you can save or discard the changes, or cancel and go back to the Maillist Members page.

Adding and Deleting Members

If you are the owner or manager of a list, you can add and delete members. First, display the maillist edit page, then click the Maillist members tab.

Adding a Member

You can add members to the list by typing their email address in the box beside the Add button and then clicking on the button. A row should be added to the list of members for the new address. You can then set the Deliver To User, Allowed to Send, and Manager options for the new user.

You can add other maillists as members of a list. In this case, the options apply to the fully expanded membership of that list. It is recommended that you try to keep the level of nesting low, since it has an impact on maillist performance, and can be hard to manage.

Deleting a Member

You can delete a member by clicking on the trash can icon next to the member's email address.

When you are finished adding and deleting members, you would click the Save Changes button to make the changes. Pressing the Discard Changes button would throw away all the changes you have made since the last save.

You can click the Back to go back to the previous page (usually the Search Results page). If you have unsaved changes when you click the Back button, you will be presented with a dialog in which you can save or discard the changes, or cancel and go back to the Maillist Members page.

Adding Members From a File

In addition to adding/deleting members manually, you can also modify the members by using the contents of a file as new members, or to replace entirely the members of the list.

Adding a Manager

A maillist manager is a member of the list who has permission to edit the list. A manager can change list options, and can add, delete, and modify members. A manager cannot delete the list.

If you check the Manager checkbox on a member which is an embedded Maillist, this gives manager rights to all SFU members of the embedded maillist, including members of any further nested maillists.

To remove someone's Manager status, just uncheck the Manager checkbox, and click Save Changes.

Modifying the Allowed and Denied Senders

In addition to the Allowed To Send checkbox on the Maillist members tab, there is an Allowed Senders tab and a Denied Senders tab. These let you edit the Allow and Deny lists directly.

The Allowed Senders list is a list of addresses that are explicitly allowed to send to the list. These would be addresses of people in addition to the members of the list (if members are allowed to send to the list) who the owner or manager of the list wants to allow to send to the list.

The Denied Senders list is a list of addresses that the owner or manager of the list has explicitly denied the right to send to the list (even if that person is a member of the list).

Normally, you won't need to modify the Allowed Senders and Denied Senders lists directly. Just set the Restricted Sender, and Allow Members to Send options as you want, then use the Allowed to Send checkboxes to allow or deny sending by individual members. The allow/deny lists will be updated appropriately.

However, you will need to edit the Allowed Senders and Denied Senders lists directly if you want to allow a non-member to send, or add a wildcard address, or a regular expression.

To add an address to the list of allowed senders, click the Allowed Senders tab to display the Allowed Senders page. Type the address in the text area labeled Add new addresses:, then click the Add button.

Adding a wildcard

A wildcard address is one with the form *@foo.bar. For example, adding *@cs.sfu.ca to the Allowed Senders list will allow any address which ends in "@cs.sfu.ca" to send to the list. Adding it to the Denied Senders list will deny all addresses in that domain from sending to your list.

Adding a Regular Expression

Advanced users can add regular expressions to the Allowed Senders and Denied Senders lists. Regular expressions are too complex to describe here. For a description of regular expressions, see the unix manual page for grep. (Log onto fraser and type man grep).

Regular expressions must have the form /regex/. For example, /^.*@.*\.sfu\.ca$/.

Sender Restrictions

You can control who is allowed to send to your list by turning on the "Restricted Sender" options. We recommend that you make all your lists restricted sender lists, to help reduce the volume of spam.

Restricted Sender

The restricted sender option is displayed in the Sender restrictions tab.

Checking the Restricted checkbox gives you some control on who can and cannot send messages to the list. If this is unchecked, then anyone can send messages to the list. If it is checked, you can use the Allow members to send options, and the Allowed Senders and Denied Senders lists to control who can send to the list.

Sender restrictions can be differentiated for SFU and Non-SFU users. So, for example, you can make the list unrestricted for SFU users, but restricted for non-SFU users. However, it is recommended that Restricted Sender be on for both SFU and Non-SFU users.

Allow members to send

The allow members to send option is displayed in the Sender restrictions tab.

If you have selected Restricted for your list, you can use this option to control whether or not the members of the list can send to the list. Sender restrictions can be differentiated for SFU and Non-SFU users. So, for example, you can allow SFU members to send, but not allow external members to send.

Handling of Unauthorized Senders

There are two settings which control how mail from unauthorized senders is handled:

Unauthorized Members

These are members of the list who are not authorized to send to the list. The options available are:

1. Delete the message with no warning.
2. Reject the message, sending are error message back to the sender.
3. Bounce the message to the list moderator (by default the owner).

The default action is number 2.

Non-Members

These are people who are NOT members of the list, and who are not authorized to send to the list. The options available are:

1. Delete the message with no warning.
2. Bounce the message to the list moderator (by default the owner).

Since a large number of messages of this type are spam, sending an error message back to the sender is not an option. The default action is number 1, and it is recommeded that you keep this setting.

As of 2008/09/01 these settings can be differentiated for SFU addresses and non-SFU addresses. The significant change here is that for non-member SFU addresses you can specify that the message be rejected, sending an error message back to the sender.

As mentioned, the moderator is the list owner by default. You can change this to be one of the other managers of the list by selecting the manager from the popup.

Limiting Message Size

By default, the SFU mail system will accept messages up to 26Megs in size. To set a smaller maximum size for your mailing list, do the following:

1. Go to the Sender Restrictions page for your list.
2. In the text field in the Maximum Message Size section, type the maximum size. The value must be greater than 2500 bytes, and less than 25M. You can specify the value as a simple number (eg. 3000) or in "k" (eg. 5k) or in "M" (eg. 5M).
3. Click the Set button.
4. Select the option for handling mail which exceeds this maximum. By default, a rejection message is sent back to the sender. The other option is to forward the message to the moderator
5. Click the Save Changes button.

Note that the owner and managers of a list can send messages of any size (up to the system limit of 26M) regardless of the maximum you set here.

Changing other list information

The owner or manager of a maillist can modify other attributes of the list. The following topics explain what modifications can be made.

Once you have made the changes you want, you would select Save Changes to get the changes made. If you press Discard Changes all changes since the last time you saved will be discarded.

Change list description

The list description is displayed in the Maillist info tab.

The list description is a short one line description of the list. You should make sure this is a good description of the purpose of the list. Type the new description in the text field beside the Description label, then click the Set button beside it.

Subscription Policies

There are 2 attributes which control who is allowed to subscribe to a maillist, and how they can subscribe. They are:

1. Subscription Policy for SFU Users
2. Subscription Policy for Non-SFU Users

These options are displayed in the Maillist info tab.

The subscription policies are set via popup menus with the following options:

Anyone can subscribe

A user of this type (SFU or Non-SFU) can subscribe without requiring approval of the owner.

Owner approves subscription requests

The user may subscribe, but they won't actually be subscribed until the owner (or manager) approves it.

Only owner can subscribe members

The user won't see any Subscribe button. Only the owner or manager can add members.

Subscribe via email

It is also possible to subscribe via email. To use this feature, a person (on campus or off) would send an email message to list-name-request@sfu.ca (where list-name is the name of the mailing list) with the subject subscribe.

If the subscription policy is "Anyone can subscribe" or "Owner approves subscription requests", they will get a confirmation message to which they must reply to complete the subscribe operation. If owner approval is required, the new address will be put into "pending approval" state until the owner approves it. Until the owner approves the new address, it will not receive any mail from the list.

Unsubscribe via email

You can also unsubscribe from lists via email. To use this feature, a person (on campus or off) would send an email message to list-name-request@sfu.ca (where list-name is the name of the mailing list) with the subject unsubscribe. The user will get a confirmation message to which they must reply to complete the unsubscribe operation.

The only restriction on unsubscribing is that students cannot unsubscribe from a courselist or academic plan list in which they are automatically included.

Setting Moderator

A moderator is a person who is designated to handle mail sent to a mailing list. (See Creating a Moderated List). By default the owner of the list is the moderator. You can specify another one of the managers of the list as the moderator.

Handling Email to the "-request" Address

In adherance to internet mailing list standards, every maillist has a "request" address associated with it. For example, the list ic-info has an ic-info-request address. This address is used by the maillist system for a couple of things:

1. If you send a message to the -request address with "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" in the subject, it initiates a subscribe or unsubscribe operation.
2. Any other mail to this address is forwarded to a person to deal with it.

You can specify who should get these forwarded emails by setting the Maillist Request Handling option. By default this is the owner of the list. To change this:

If you select the "Managers" option, all managers will receive email sent to the -request address. If you select the "Owner & Managers" option, the owner and all managers will recieve the email.

Deliver to Members by Default

The Deliver to Members by Default attribute is displayed in the Maillist info tab.

Each list member has a Deliver To User checkbox, which controls whether or not mail is deliverd to that user. The Deliver to Members by Default is the default value for new members when they subscribe to the list. Normally, this should be left checked.

Hidden Lists

If you want to restrict who can see your list when doing a search, set the hidden flag:

A hidden list will appear in search results for the owner, managers, members, or anyone who is allowed to send to the list. No one else will be able to see the list.

Suspending Delivery to Lists

You can suspend delivery to a list by setting the Delivery Suspended flag:

Mail will not be delivered to a suspended list. A rejection message explaining that delivery to the list is suspended will be sent back to authorized senders. Turning on the Delivery Suspended flag will not affect any other use of the list. For example, it will still work as an access control list, and can still be used to specify a list of managers.

When you want to send mail to the list, uncheck the box. Wait about 30 seconds before sending to the list. Then, wait until your message has been delivered before checking the box to suspend delivery again.

When would you use this? If you just want to use a list for access control on the web and don't need to send messages to the list, you should set the Delivery Suspended flag. This will ensure that no spam can ever be sent to the list. Similarly, if you have a large list that has a very restricted set of senders and is only used occasionally, it is a good idea to leave the Delivery Suspended flag on, and only turn it off when you want to send to the list.

Change list note

The list note is displayed in the Maillist info tab.

The list note is a longer description of the purpose of the list. The note can be multiple lines. Type the note in the text box beside the Note label, then click the Set button beside it.

Change list welcome

The list welcome message is displayed in the Maillist info tab.

If you enter a list welcome message, the message will be emailed to people when they become a new member of the list. The welcome message might contain information like what the list is used for, how to resign from the list, etc.

Type the welcome message in the text box beside the Welcome label, then click the Set button beside it.

Copy on Send

By default, when you send a message to a mailing list to which you belong you do not get a copy of the message. You can change this behaviour for any maillist by doing the following:

Maximum Spam Level

Any mail that gets sent to a mailing list from outside of SFU gets a spam level assigned. A spam level of 12 or higher gets automatically deleted by the mail server, but much spam will get a spam rating of less than 12, and will be delivered. You can reduce the possibility of spam getting sent to your list by setting the maximum spam level that the list will accept to a value less than 12.

If your list has a very restricted set of allowed senders who are all SFU users making authenticated connections to the mailserver, then you can set the maximum spam level to a low value, like 1 or 2.

If your list has many external users who send to it, you may have to set the maximum allowed spam level higher (ie. 5 or higher). You may need to experiment to find a value that blocks most spam, but doesn't block legitimate messages.

To set the maximum allowed spam level:

Setting an Error-Handling Address

Errors can occur during delivery of a message. A common example is a delivery failure to a bad address. When delivery errors occur, an error message is automatically sent to someone who is designated to handle such errors. This is either the owner or one of the managers. If you don't set a value for the Errors To Address delivery errors are sent to the moderator. If you haven't set a moderator, delivery errors are sent to the owner. To set the Errors To Address to one of the managers:

Controlling Spam

You can help reduce the amount of unsolicited bulk email (spam) that is sent through maillists by checking some settings on the Sender Restrictions page.

1. Make sure that your lists are "Restricted Sender", at least for non-SFU senders. All new maillists are Restricted Sender by default, but many older lists are not, and mail from any address will be delivered to them.
2. Set the maximum allowable spam rating to a value of 5 or less (the lower the better). If this value is not set, the default of 3.5 is used, which is the value at which our spam-control software marks messages as spam. Depending on the list, you may have to adjust this value up or down.
3. Select how to handle the spam from the Spam Control popup list. Your options are "Delete the Message" or "Bounce to Moderator". If you want to make sure that no mail gets accidentally thrown away, set this to "Bounce to Moderator" and you will be able to vet all messages flagged as spam.

Note that mail that comes from on-campus machines and mail that is sent through an authenticated mail connection has a spam rating of 0, so it will never get thrown away.