Kavi Mailing List Manager Help

Chapter 48. Edit a Mailing List

Overview

The Edit a Mailing List tool can be used to edit a mailing list's details, subscribers, configuration and Web availability. Some of these changes are trivial—such as editing moderators, text or temporarily hiding the Web archives—but other edits are distinctly non-trivial. Edits take effect immediately and some changes may be permanent (e.g., if you change to a List Type that does not support archives, the existing archives are destroyed), so be sure you understand the consequences before you .

Some hints for editing lists:

  • If this is a Members Mailing List, the Regular and Posters Subscriber Lists are populated by a query against the Kavi Members database. Because subscribers cannot manage their own subscriptions, Members Mailing Lists are incompatible with all List Types that accept public subscription requests (i.e., The -pS combination is set in the ezmlm-make argument string. This includes the default List Types 'Newsletter', 'Public Discussion' and 'Moderated Public Discussion'.). The most appropriate 'Web Availability' setting is 'Administrator Only'.

  • You may want to warn list users if you change 'Web Availability' to a more restrictive setting. Some list users will no longer see links to the mailing list and if they've bookmarked Mailing List Home, won't be authorized to view the page's contents.

  • If you change the 'Web Archive Visibility' setting to 'Do NOT show Web archives', existing Web archives are immediately deleted. These can be regenerated from the raw archives if necessary but any edits (e.g., removal of messages containing spam or other inappropriate content) will be lost.

  • To edit subscribers, use the Edit a List's Subscribers tool.

  • Changing to a different List Type is especially challenging. Before switching List Types, compare the two List Types and identify which configuration options are set differently. Look up each of these options in Changing List Type Options to see how the proposed changes will affect your list and its users.

Use the Edit a Mailing List tool to:

  • Edit a mailing list's description or policy.

  • Add or remove moderators.

  • Change Web access by editing the Web Availability or Web Archive Visibility options.

  • Temporarily hide the Web archives by setting the Web Archive Visibility option to 'Administrators Only'.

  • Switch a mailing list to a different List Type to change the underlying configuration. This step is necessary if you wish to delete a List Type that is currently in use by this mailing list.

Back to top

How to to Edit a Mailing List

Select

Select the mailing list you want to edit. Depending on the route you took to this tool, you may already have performed this step.

Edit

Reset one or more of the following options to edit the configuration for this mailing list. As mentioned, you cannot edit the name of a mailing list. When you are satisfied with your settings, click Save.

Options:

List Name

The name for this mailing list. This name is used to form administrative email addresses for this list, so short names work best. Most organizations use abbreviations to construct list names. Names must be all lowercase, but may contain alphanumeric characters, underscores (_) and dashes (-). List names cannot consist solely of numerals. Spaces, periods and special characters are not allowed.

Important

Once a mailing list is added, the name cannot be edited because of dependencies in the system, so be sure the name is entered correctly before saving the new list.

Description

This description is used to distinguish this mailing list from others on the site and provide potential subscribers with information about the topic before they sign up. A good description makes the list easier to manage.

List Type

You may edit the List Type, but be sure you understand what impact this will have on list features and the rules that control mailing list access to posting, subscriptions and archives. If this is a Members Mailing List, do not use any public List Types.

Web Availability

This option sets how links to view and subscribe to this mailing list are displayed in web-based tools. Note that these settings do not affect access through ezmlm email commands, which are configured in the List Type.

Public

If this is set, links to the mailing list can be displayed on Public pages (although this requires some customization). Public users can view information about the mailing list and subscribe directly through webtools.

Account Holders Only

If this is set, links to the mailing list are displayed in Members Area tools and pages such as My Mailing Lists, so account holders must login to view information about the mailing list and manage their subscriptions.

List Subscribers

If this is set, links to the mailing list are only displayed in Members Area tools and pages such as My Mailing Lists if the account holder is already subscribed. Subscribers can view information about the mailing list and manage their subscriptions. Account holders who aren't subscribed cannot add subscriptions for themselves, nor can they view information about the list, so lists with this setting are private, invitation-only lists. Public users may be subscribed by administrators but won't be able to see any links to this list.

Administrators only

If this is set, links to the mailing list are not displayed in Members Area tools or pages such as My Mailing Lists, so subscribers cannot view the list or manage their own subscriptions. Since administrators must add or remove all subscriptions, this setting is primarily used for mandatory mailing lists and admin-only lists. It is sometimes used to hide a mailing list temporarily.

Web Archive Visibility

Set this option to determine whether this list has Web archives, and if so, what level of user ccan view and search the Web archives. This setting is to some extent independent of Web Availability settings. These access levels usually match, but can be more or less restrictive as required. If the Web archives are more visible than the Web Availability, which provides access to the Mailing List Home page, a link to the archives must be added in the appropriate area(s).

This setting presumes archiving is enabled in the underlying List Type (i.e., the -a switch is set in the ezmlm-make argument string). If archiving is enabled in the underlying List Type, raw archives may be available through ezmlm email commands. Consult the List Type configuration settings to see what level of access is provided to the raw archives. If raw archives do not exist, this setting is ignored.

NO Web archives

If this is set, the list won't have any Web archives. If archiving is enabled in the underlying List Type, Web archives can be enabled at any time.

Public

If this is set, Web archives can be available in the Public Area of the website (this requires customization).

Account Holders Only

If this is set, Web archives are available to any logged-in account holder.

  • If all account holders are allowed to see links to the mailing list, then anyone who has logged in can access the Web archives through Mailing List Home.

  • If the public is allowed to subscribe to this list directly, these Public Subscribers won't be able to view the archives.

  • If links to the mailing list are not available to all account holders, a link to the Web archives must be added in the Members Area.

List Subscribers

If this is set, the Web archives are only available to logged-in list subscribers.

  • If account holders who are not subscribers are allowed to visit the Mailing List Home page, they will see a link to subscribe but won't see a link to the archives.

  • If subscribers are allowed to visit the Mailing List Home page, they will see a link to the archives.

  • If subscribers are not allowed to visit the Mailing List Home page, a customized link to the archives must be added in the Members Area.

Administrators Only

If this is set, the Web archives are hidden from everyone except administrators. As the most privileged level of user, administrators always have access if Web archives exist. This is a good way to hide Web archives temporarily if you are setting up a mailing list or need time to remove inappropriate content.

Protect Archives from Spam

Obscuring email domains in the Web archives makes it impossible for spammers to glean email addresses from the Web archives. However, it also makes it more difficult for list users to respond privately to messages in the archives, because the user has to search the roster or other sources for the address. To protect the privacy of list users' email addresses, most lists opt to obscure email domains in the Web archives, so this is the default setting.

Yes, obscure email domains to prevent address harvesting.

If this is set, the domain portion of email addresses is obscured when the Web archives are displayed. This is recommended for most lists.

No, show full email addresses.

If you use this setting, complete email addresses are displayed in the Web archives. This makes it easier for list users to contact other list users privately, but exposed addresses are open to address harvesting by spammers.

Active Account Holders Only

If this is set to 'Yes', account holders who are subscribed to this list are removed if their account is deactivated, so messages are only sent to active account holders. If this is set to 'No', mailing list messages are sent to inactive as well as active account holders. Inactive account holders may not want to receive messages from the organization, so the 'Yes' setting is used for most mailing lists.

Moderators

If the List Type has moderated posting, there must be at least one moderator email address in this field before anyone can post to the mailing list. Enter one or more email addresses, using commas to separate additional email addresses:

bill@example.com,fred@hostname.example.com.

Deny List

If the Deny List is enabled for this mailing list (it is enabled for most mailing lists by default), enter email addresses from which messages should be rejected. These are email addresses from which posts would ordinarily be accepted (e.g., the email address may be subscribed), but posting privileges have been revoked due to repeated list policy infractions or possibly temporary issues such as a misconfigured auto-responder or malware infection. Use commas to separate multiple email addresses:

bickerly@example.com,spammer@hostname.example.com.

Policy and Usage

A description of this list's intended usage and policy restrictions. For more information, see Writing Policy and Usage Statements.

Done

You've just edited this mailing list and your configuration changes will take effect immediately!

Back to top