Mailing Lists

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Mailing lists are useful for sending email messages to a group using a single email address. Mailing lists are housed on a server that allows you to choose who can become a part of the group, who can send mail to the group, and it allows you to approve messages submitted by group members before going out to the whole group. Haverford uses the Mailman list management software.

Members of the Haverford community may request one or more mailing lists for their groups in order to have on-going discussions via email. Each Mailing List is set up for use by a particular group (i.e. engl100). Once the Mailing List is set up by IITS, the list administrator is responsible for moderating the discussion and maintaining the group list.

Students who would like a mailing list for their student group should place a request through FIG.

Before you request a list, please make sure that a list is right for your needs. There are some downsides to lists.

• Maintaining the list is time consuming, and is the responsibility of the list administrator.
• Mailing List mail is mixed in with all email, and must be organized by each member of the discussion group.
• Many people get confused over when they are posting to the whole list, versus responding to an individual.

Alternatives to Mailing Lists

There are a couple of alternatives to Mailing Lists. Talk to an IITS staff member to select the best discussion option for your needs.

• Use Blackboard to host a web-based discussion.
• For classes, use the course enrollment lists to email, and encourage your students to do the same.

Using a List

All public Mailman lists are available at http://list.haverford.edu/mailman/listinfo/

If allowed by the list owner, you may use this interface to:

• Subscribe to the list (recieve mailing to the list)
• Unsubscribe from the list
• Post to the list
• View sent messages in the list archive
• Change subscription options
  • stop getting mail while on vacation
  • restore list mail when back from vacation

Passwords

To access mailing list option and archives you need a list user password. By default, you have a separate password for each list to which you subscribe. If you forget you password, you can request a password reminder.

You can set all your list members passwords to be the same. On the subscriptions options page, check Change Globally.