Managing a MALCS mailing list

A MALCS tutorial

 

This is easy, folks.  The program makes it a bit confusing, but the basics are easy, once you know what to look for (and mostly, what to ignore). 

The two primary users on any mailing list are
administrator --adds/deletes names from the list, sets policy, and approves/rejects messages.
moderator -- approves/rejects messages

Administrator outranks moderator; administator can moderate, but moderater can't administrate.

You are administrator of your list and de facto moderator.  Once you set up the list, you can authorize someone as moderator - they'll get a separate password with access to the "moderator menu" only. Otherwise, you'll probably just act as your own moderator.

As administrator, you login to the administrator window at
http://lists.malcs.org/admin.cgi/yourlistname-malcs.org

It's an icky address so just bookmark it.   You can also login as moderator for a more simplified window (see below).   

But your admin screen looks like this:admin menu for mailing lists

 

Don't worry.  You'll probably only use two functions on this screen, both marked with red arrows.

I still haven't figured out what all these options do.

The first option to deal with is "Membership Management" on the left.  This is where you'll set up your initial list.  Click on it, and you'll see that it will open to give you more options: membership options screenshot

 

These are the main functions you'll use

Membership list just shows you currently subscribed members.

The second two deal with actual subscription and removal.  We'll walk through the "mass subscription" menu here.  The "mass removal" menu is very similar.

Click on "mass subscription" now, and it will take you to a larger window, shown below....

 

 

 

Membership subscription screenshotThis is the main subscription menu.  Again, you'll only do two steps here, marked by the red arrows.

You can either enter your email addresses directly, or cut and paste them from another document, OR even hit that "browse" button, and upload a whole text file of email addresses (I don't recommend that though--just as easy to cut and paste).

The rest is pretty self-explanatory.  The options at the top let you either subscribe members, or invite them to subscribe.  You can send a welcome message which will get appended to the top of the automatic notify email, and the third options sends an extra round of email to you as admin/listowner (also not recommended).

Then just hit the "Submit" button and it's done.

You can go back anytime you want to add one more name or ten, the same way.

Okay, once that's done, your list is set up.  You'll get a ton of "confirm subscription" emails, which you can just delete (note: don't worry about deleting malcsmail in your personal inbox; everything is kept in the archives on the server).  

The "mass removal" menu is virtually identical, except that the names you enter are deleted rather than added (duh), so I won't review it here. 

The window you'll use most often from here on in on the right side of the main admin page (the first one you saw when you logged in), "Tend to pending moderator requests".  This is the same/only window that the moderator logs into.

Your steps are numbered here.  When a member posts to the list, their message should go straight through.  If the message is considered too big, or if it's from a non-member (or sometimes a member uses a different email address so it gets considered "non-member"),

then you (and your moderator, if you have one) get an email telling you to come to this page.

Moderator screenshot

Here you simply choose to

Additionally, at #2 here, you can make the same decision for all future messages from this sender. 

And if it's a spammer, you can ban them forever and ever.

And then, of course, don't forget the "Submit" button, marked #3.

And that's it!  There are a zillion other options, of course, so go ahead and play around with them if you want to.  I still haven't figured everything out. 

 

See listjefa page (password protected) at http://www.malcs.org/work/listjefa-page/