Common Mailing List Configuration Options

Overview

These are some common configuration options, which list owners may want to consider for the lists they manage.  They are sorted by the top level category/section of the list.

General Options

• List moderator email addresses: Add one or more people here so that they receive notifications of pending moderation requests, to approve or reject list postings (for moderated lists) or subscription requests (for lists with subscription moderated).  It is strongly recommended to have at least two people per list set as moderators.  All moderators for a specific list share a single password.
• List administrator email addresses: Add multiple people here so that they receive notifications of pending requests that need to be handled by an administrator or moderator.  List administrators can change configuration settings, have all the other rights of the list moderators, and receive all notices for moderation requests that list moderators have.  All administrators for a specific list share a single password.
• Where are replies to list messages directed?:  When someone hits Reply to a message from this list, should the replies go to the sender of the message that is being replied to, or the entire list.  Poster is strongly recommended for this option, otherwise confusion can occur and messages meant for a single sender would be routed to the entire list.  Using Reply All sends replies to the list and the original sender, regardless of this setting.
• Should administrator get notices of subscribes and unsubscribes?: Self explanatory, but can be useful for smaller lists.

Privacy Options: Subscription rules

• Is this list moderator's approval required for unsubscription requests: This option MUST stay at 'No', except for dedicated lists containing SUNY New Paltz email addresses only, and with explicit approval of Information Technology Services.  Otherwise, individuals cannot unsubscribe themselves, and can (rightfully) report the messages as spam.

Privacy Options: Sender filters

• By default should new list member postings be moderated: This strongly depends on the list.  Even in lists that you plan on having back and forth discussion, you may want to consider turning this on, and then manually removing the moderation flag for people after they've posted once or twice to the list.
• Action to take for postings from non-members for which no explicit action is defined: You probably want to set this to Discard (which will silently drop any posts from non-subscribers).  The only downside to this is if one of your subscribers who you WANT to be able to post, isn't sending from the address you have them subscribed to (i..e you have some @gmail.com address, but that person forwards their mail from @gmail.com to @yahoo.com.  In this situation, when they try to post - the 'from' address would be the Yahoo address, which wouldn't be recognized as a subscriber).
• Should messages from non-members, which are automatically discarded, be forwarded to the list moderator?: See the last option.  If you enable that, do you still want to be notified as the list administrator?