Kavi Mailing List Manager works in tandem with ezmlm software to offer a rich set of options that can enable a variety of features and different levels of access to posting, subscriptions and archives. This document provides an overview of mailing list creation and general instructions that supplement the detailed instructions in the tool page help.

If you want to add a Members Mailing List, follow instructions in the Kavi® Members Help, including the Concepts document All About Members Mailing Lists and the Add a Members Mailing List tool page help. Members Mailing Lists are created in Kavi Members and have significantly different characteristics that need to be taken into account to properly configure and manage these lists.

Collect all the information you need to configure the mailing list, including the name (this is important, since it appears on all list messages and cannot be changed) and other details described in the Add a Mailing List tool page help. You may want to follow links in the tool page help for more information on any topic you don't understand before actually beginning to add a list, or you may want to add a test list (set a name that will never be used in your organization) and keep it hidden by setting the Web Availability to 'Administrators Only'.

When adding a mailing list, your first task is to select the right List Type. If you know that your new mailing list needs to behave exactly like another mailing list that already exists, you can select the same List Type. If not, you need to examine how the list will be used and what kind of access controls are required over posting, subscriptions and archives, then identify which List Types meet all of your criteria. If more than one List Type is a potential fit, examine the features supported by the List Type and select the one that supports all the features that your mailing list needs.

Super Admins can click here to visit the Manage List Types Tool. Click the View button for a synopsis of List Type configuration.

Read this section if you aren't sure how to match up your use case with the right List Type. If you've already selected your List Type, skip to Configuring Web Availability.

Before you can select a List Type that meets your needs, you must know certain things about your list: whether it will be used to conduct interactive discussions or to publish information, the size of the target audience, whether it needs to be inclusive or exclusive, and whether the content is public or should be kept private. Once you know the answers to these questions, you can see which List Type fits your criteria.

Now that you've selected the List Type that determines access to subscriptions via email commands, you can set Web Availability to control how subscriptions are added through webtools. Remember that there are two routes through which subscriptions can be added, and the List Type controls email access. If the List Type is configured to accept public email subscription commands, you will probably want to set this to 'Account Holders' so that everyone who is logged in can manage their subscriptions online. When the List Type is closed to email subscription commands, the subscription process is conducted entirely through the Web and access is determined by whatever Web Availability setting you select. This is explained in greater detail in the Concepts document Subscription Access Controls. For examples, see Standard Mailing List Configurations.

When setting Web Availability, Kavi Mailing List Manager gives the administrator latitude to set Web access that is much more closed or much more open than access via email. Administrators primarily interact with a mailing list through webtools, but list users primarily interact through email. Sometimes novice administrators assume that whatever level of access they set in Web Availability options will override the List Type access settings but this is not the case. If you are not sure whether you understand List Types well enough to select the proper Web Availability settings, see the Concepts document on List Types and Access Control.

There are two different kinds of archives. The ezmlm-idx archives store raw email messages as plain text, so the archives that are available via ezmlm email archive retrieval commands don't include any images or attachments. Web archives are generated from the raw ezmlm-idx archives. Access to the Web archives, which do include images and attachments is controlled through the Web Archive Visibility setting. If you want the archives to be entirely off-limits to the public, you have to choose a List Type that doesn't accept archive retrieval commands from the public as well as setting Web Archive Visibility to 'Account Holder' or higher. You may also disable Web archiving or disable archiving altogether by selecting a List Type in which ezmlm-idx archiving is disabled. This is explained in greater detail in the Concepts document Archive Access Controls and Mailing List Archives.

You've now completed the basic setup process and your mailing list is capable of receiving and forwarding messages. You may want to do a little fine-tuning or testing before adding subscribers.

When you save your mailing list you will see an 'Add Subscribers' button, which will take you to the Add Subscribers tool, or you can navigate here from Mailing List Home. The Add a Mailing List tool allows you to add moderator email addresses to the Moderator Subscriber List (if the mailing list is moderated, this field is required), and optionally add email addresses of users who should not be allowed to post messages to the Deny Subscriber List (if this is enabled in the underlying List Type). You may type or paste addresses into these text boxes.

When you are ready to add subscribers, select the type of subscription you are adding (i.e., the Subscriber List to which the email addresses should be added) and provide the subscribers' email addresses by typing, pasting or uploading a datafile. If you want to add a different type of subscriber, such as Digest Subscribers, add them as a separate group. Remember that the alternate email addresses of all subscribers in the Kavi Members database are automatically added to the Posters Subscriber List. You may add email addresses that aren't in the Kavi Members database to the Allow Subscriber List. Read the Add Subscribers tool page help for more detailed instructions.

If you want to add cross-posters, navigate to Mailing List Home through the Manage Mailing Lists tool and click the 'Edit Cross Posters' button.