This document describes the list administrator's interface for GNU Mailman 2.1. It contains information a list owner would need to configure their list, either through the web interface or through email. It also covers the moderator's interface for approving held messages and subscription notices, and the web interface for creating new mailing lists. In general, it does not cover the command line interface to Mailman, installing Mailman, or interacting with Mailman from the point of view of the user. That information is covered in other manuals.

Introduction

This is one of a set of three documents for the various people involved in running and using a mailing list. For the members of mailing lists (the subscribers), we have the Mailman 2.1 Members Manual which covers things like subscribing and unsubscribing. For the people who install and set up Mailman, we will eventually have the Mailman 2.1 Site Administration Manual, which has not yet been written.

This document covers the people who run mailing lists: the list administrators (who can change all the list options, as well as authorize postings that have been held for moderation), and the list moderators (who cannot modify list settings).

This document does not need to be read in order, so if you just want an answer to a specific question, jump to the appropriate place and references to other sections will be provided when necessary or potentially helpful.

Acknowledgements

The bulk of this document has been written by Terri Oda. Terri used to get a lot of spam, so she did research into neat evolutionary anti-spam solutions. And then she thought it would be nice if her grandfather could use the web without worrying about bad stuff getting into his computer, so she started doing web security. All of this is a roundabout way of saying that she actually doesn't consider herself a document writer, but she was tired of Mailman not having documentation so she figured it was time to do something about it.

The original site admin docs were written by Barry Warsaw. Thanks also go to the rest of the Mailman team who provided the inline help upon which much of this documentation is based.

This document is now stored in the Mailman wiki http://wiki.list.org, and may be edited and added to by members of the Mailman community. Please see the wiki changelogs for more information.

Mailman's interfaces

Mailman has 3 interfaces:

• The web interface -- used by most people, this is the main interface most users will see
• The email interface -- used as an alternative to the web interface
• The command line interface -- used mostly by site admins, this is very powerful but perhaps not so user-friendly

The web interface

The most commonly used interface of Mailman is the web interface. Almost all the options can be set from this interface, and it also provides inline help and descriptions of each option. More importantly, the day-to-day tasks of running a mailing list are handed through this interface.

Assuming a fairly standard configuration, the configuration interface has a URL like this:

http://WEBSERVER/mailman/admin/LISTNAME

And the moderation interface has a very similar URL as follows:

http://WEBSERVER/mailman/admindb/LISTNAME

In many cases, this is the only interface a list administrator will use, and may be the only interface the list administrator has permissions to use.

The email interface

There is also an email interface for Mailman, allowing list admins to adjust settings or handle caught messages without requiring them to open up a web browser.

Moderation

The web interface for moderation can be found at a URL similar to the following, depending on your mailman config:

http://WEBSERVER/mailman/admindb/LISTNAME

From here, you will see a list of anything awaiting your decision. This is largely messages that have been caught for some reason, but may also include subscription/unsubscription requests if you require admin authorization before someone can join or leave the list.

Why do I have to authorize these messages?

Messages are "caught" in the moderation queue depending upon your list settings. There are a number of rules that allow you to choose which messages require moderation, but basically you want things which might be inappropriate to be caught by these filters so a human can choose whether they get sent to all subscribers or not.

For example, as an anti-spam measure, many lists only accept messages from their members. Any non-member who sends a message will have it caught in the moderation queue. If the message turns out to be spam, it can be discarded, but if it turns out to be from someone posting from their work address, you may wish to send it out anyhow.

How do I moderate messages?

There are 4 choices when it comes to moderating a message:

1. Defer

This option allows you to put off the choice until later. It leaves the message in the queue and does nothing to it.

1. Accept

This accepts the message, allowing it to be sent to all of your subscribers.

1. Reject

This rejects the message, letting the sender know that it was rejected. You may also include a message explaining why. The reject option is usually used for messages which are inappropriate for that list for some reason -- they may have attachments which are too large, be off-topic, or from someone who is not allowed to post to that list. Rejected messages are not sent to the list.

1. Discard

This discards the message, ensuring that it is not sent to the list. In this case, no message is sent to the sender. This option is most often used for spam messages.

Configuration

General Options

General List Personality

Passwords

Language options

Membership Management...

Non-digest options

Digest options

Privacy options...

Bounce processing

Archiving Options

Mail<->News gateways

Auto-responder

Content filtering

Topics