As described in the "ListServ: Basics" Documentation, Listservs are sophisticated e-mail lists running on a server that allows you to create, manage, and control access to those lists easily.  It enables a large group of people to communicate effectively with one another without requiring each person to maintain a list of all the other participants.  Additionally, Listservs can archive postings in a searchable online database, send indexed digests to participants instead of individual messages, and make sets of files publicly accessible by email.  LISTSERVs can also be publicly searchable by the campus at large (or not), and can also be set up so individuals can subscribe and unsubscribe to the list at their leisure.

This document goes through information on how to create and manage a Listserv.  The topics we will discuss are:

• Mailing Lists:  Listserv vs Email Group Lists
• Requesting a new UCSF Listserv
• Managing your Listserv via the Listserv Management Web site
• Managing your Listserv via Email
• Managing your Subscriber list (via web)
• Configuring your Listserv: Access and Security Settings (via web)
• Automated Server Reports (e.g. "Daily Error Monitoring Report")
• Additional Help
  
  • Listserv Manual (vendor site)
  • OAAIS Documentation

Mailing Lists: Listserv vs Email Group Lists

Before requesting a Listserv, one needs to determine whether a Listserv is the best solution or whether a standard maillist (Email Group List) will suffice.  Both a Listserv and an Email Group List will allow communications to multiple people.  The sender addresses the message to the list and everyone that list will receive the message (a one-to-many communication).  The difference comes in how the replies are handled and how the lists are maintained.

Email Group List

• Responses go ONLY to the original sender (or to the address specified by the Sender via "Reply to:" field)
  •  replies are only one-to-one
• Email Group Lists can be created by anyone
  • More information for creating Email Group lists can be found on the Entourage 2008 documentation
• List is maintained by the original sender
• List only exists in the sender's e-mail program

Listserv Lists

• Responses go to everyone on the list (unless a moderator for the list has been set, more on that later)
  
  • most communication to the list are therefore one-to-many 
• Listservs are created by OAAIS and must follow UCSF Guidelines
  • Please scroll down to the next section for information on requesting a new UCSF Listserv
• List of subscribers can be maintained by more than one person as defined by the List Owner
• List of subscribers can also be maintained by allowing open subscription/unsubscription
• Example uses for Listservs:
  • Labs that wish to simplify communication with all its members
  • Long term projects that span members from multiple Universities/organizations
  • Ongoing Interest/Discussion Groups (e.g. the UCSF MacOS X Interest Group)
  • E-mail distribution lists that change frequently and need to be maintained by more than one person

Requesting a New UCSF Listserv

Requests to create a new UCSF Listserv can be done at: http://its.ucsf.edu/services/listserv/listserv_request.jsp

 

Managing Listserv

Managing Listservs can be done either through the Listserv Management Web Site or by issuing commands to the server via e-mail.  

Listserv Management Web Site

The Listserv Management Web Site gives you access to managing Listservs that you own as well as managing your subscription and options to Listservs you are a member of.  The Listserv Management Web Site can be found at http://listsrv.ucsf.edu.

If you have never logged into the site before, you will need to create a Listserv account by clicking on the "get a new LISTSERV password" link on the main page.

Once you have logged in, you will be presented with a list of open Listserv's and their titles.  Clicking on any of the list names will take you to that Listserv's archives if they are available to you.  The rest of the site is divided into three main sections:

1. List Management:  for list owners
2. Subscriber's Corner: for list members
3. Email Lists:  for discovering lists

The three main sections can be accessed at the menu bar towards the top of page. 

List Management

Clicking on the "List Management" button at the menu bar towards the top of the page, will give you List Owner functions. 

1. List Dashboard: a quick list of Listserv's that you are an "owner" of
2. List Configuration: functions to define how your Listserv behaves
3. List Reports: reports for quick statistical information pertaining to Listservs you own
4. Customization: advanced options to define how messages sent to your Listserv are formatted
5. Subscriber Management: functions for managing subscribers
6. LISTSERV Command: a command interface to issue Listserv commands directly to the server

'List Configuration' and 'Customization' should be left alone unless you have read the manual and know what the options.  The answers you provided when filling out the Listserv request form, sets these options for you.

Subscriber Management 

 If you clicking on the "List Management" button at the menu bar towards the top of the page, and choose 'Subscriber Management', you will be presented with two tabs.  The 'Single Subscriber' tab is an easy way to search for subscribers or add/delete one or two subscribers.  If you need to add multiple subscribers (or replace your entire subscriber list), then using the 'Bulk Operations' tab would be a better option.

The "Input File:" needed for 'Bulk Operations' must be in a tab-delimited plain text file.  The columns needed are: "email address","firstname", and "lastname".  Alternatively, you can also have a plain text file with a list of single e-mail addresses per line.

Configuring your Listserv:

As stated earlier, you should generally leave most of the 'List Configuration' or 'Customization' functions alone.   But there are few list behaviors you may wish to change after you've used the list for a while; such as Attachment limitations, defining the Moderators, and defining who receives notices regarding the list.

Warning: Modifying certain Listserv configurations may render the list inaccessible.  Please read the Listserv Manual before attempting to modify settings beyond what is documented here.

Access and Security Settings

• Listserv Owners:
  
  • Owners are the primary administrators of the list. Email addresses with "owner" privileges may change the configuration and templates of the list, add and delete subscriptions, and change the settings on subscriptions. They also receive email sent to the official list owner address. Unless otherwise specified, they receive notifications of subscriptions, signoffs, and error messages related to the operation of the list.
  • Quiet Owners have all the owner privileges but do not receive any of the owner messages.
  • Each list must have at least one non-quiet owner.
  • To set the owners, go to 'List Management' -> 'List Configuration' -> 'List Configuration Tasks', and go to the 'Administrators' tab.
• Moderated List management
  • When requesting your list, you should have been asked whether you wanted the list to be moderated, or public.  Moderated lists require the approval of a "Moderator" before messages are posted to the list.  In a moderated list, messages from non-owners will be sent to a moderator for approval before being posted to the list.
  • To set the type of moderation required, go to 'List Management' -> 'List Configuration' -> 'List Configuration Tasks', and go to the 'Security' tab.  Scroll down to the section "Send" and choose an appropriate "Send=" option
    
    • Public: anyone (even non-subscribers) can post to the list
    • Private: only list subscribers can post to the list
    • Editor: only Editors and Owners can post to the list
    • Owner: only the Owners can post to the list
  • To cut down on spam being submitted to the moderators for approval, select "Confirm" and "Confirm applies to: Non-Members and Editors". This will force non-subscribers to confirm their postings.
• Subscription
  • There are three options for controlling subscriptions requests:
    • Open: anyone email can submit a "Subscribe" command and get added to the list
    • Owner: all requests are submitted to the Owners for approval
    • Closed: all requests are rejected, Owners need to manually subscribe/unsubscribe list members
  • To set the type of subscription, go to 'List Management' -> 'List Configuration' -> 'List Configuration Tasks', and go to the 'Security' tab.  Scroll down to the section "Subscription" and choose an appropriate "Subscription=" option

Attachments

The Listserv can handle attachments in a variety of ways.  The basic ways are to allow attachments, restrict attachments by either rejected messages with attachments or stripping attachments from email posts to the list, or allow attachments up to a certain size limit.

To set how attachments are handled, go to 'List Management' -> 'List Configuration' -> 'List Configuration Tasks', and go to the 'Attachments' tab.

• In the section 'Attachments' -> 'Attachments=', you can choose "No", "Yes", or "All" ("All" will allow all attachments and override a number of other settings such as size limitation). 
• 'Filter' will strip all non-acceptable attachments from the message and then deliver them.  (Unchecking this will reject the message and send it back to the sender).

Subject Tags

You can make posts to your Listserv easier to recognize for the recipients by pre-pending a subject tag to all messages posted to your list.  A subject tag, is a single word enclosed in brackets that is placed at the beginning of the 'Subject:' line.  By default the subject tag will be the name of your Listserv, but you specify what you want it to be by going to 'List Management' -> 'List Configuration' -> 'List Configuration Tasks', and go to the 'Subject Tags' tab.

Banners

You can set pre-defined headers/footers to all messages posted to your Listserv by defining the appropriate banner.  To define the banners for your Listserv, go to 'List Management' -> 'List Configuration' -> 'List Configuration Tasks', and go to the 'Banners' tab.

Listserv Management (via Email)

As mentioned in our Listserv: Basics help page, commands can be sent directly to the server by sending an email to " This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it " with the actual command in the body of the message (leaving the subject line blank).  To explore the commands available for Listserv Management, please read the manual for Listserv at the LSoft Support Page.

Automated Server Reports

Another benefit to using a Listserv is the server's ability to monitor your list and adjust it accordingly. 

One of the most common automated task is returning a "Daily error monitoring report" to the list owner.  The report will show which subscribers are being monitored and for what reasons.  The most common reason a subscriber would be monitored is for delivery failures.  The report will generally report something like "Last error: 5.7.1 Unspecified; usually "Delivery not authorized, message refused"".

The server is set to automatically delete subscribers from the list when delivery errors have been reported for a period of 4 days or more, or when 20 delivery errors have been received, whichever occurs first. Monitoring will cease after 5 days without any reported errors.

 

Additional Help

Listserv Manual (from LSoft)

OAAIS Documentation

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