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HOW TO USE LISTPROC: LIST OWNER'S GUIDE

The following is a brief introduction to using the list and some basic list owner commands. More detailed information about using listproc can be obtained from the CREN web site. 

    LIST OWNER RESPONSIBILITIES

    As a list owner you are the first person list users contact when they have problems. You receive a copy of any error messages generated for the list. You are also responsible for monitoring the list.

    USER SUBSCRIPTIONS

    NOTE: In the following examples, "xxxxx" represents the name of your listproc mailing list. 

    Users may subscribe to your list by sending the following email message:

      To: listproc@georgetown.edu
      subscribe xxxxx Firstname Lastname

    To have a message distributed to the list, subscribers may send email messages of the following form:

      To: xxxxx@georgetown.edu
      Subject: My first post
      [message text]

    ADD AND DELETE COMMANDS

    NOTE: If only subscribers are allowed to send to your list, it is critical that you add their correct "From:" address. This can be found in their email messages to you. Just check the From: field of the header. You must use this From address because it is the address which listproc checks for legitimate subscribers. 

    Example of a From: header:

      To: you@georgetown.edu
      From: Jane Hoya <hoyaj@georgetown.edu>

    Owner commands ADD and DELETE can be used for mass addition and deletion of users. 

    To add subscribers, follow the format:

    add xxxxx yourlistpassword subscriberaddress firstname lastname

SINGLE SUBSCRIBER ADDITION:

To: listproc@georgetown.edu
add xxxxx yourlistpassword hoyaj@georgetown.edu Jane Hoya

    MULTIPLE SUBSCRIBER ADDITION:

    To delete subscribers, follow the format:

      delete xxxxx yourlistpassword subscriberaddress

    Delete example:

      To: listproc@georgetown.edu
      delete xxxxx yourlistpassword hoyaj@georgetown.edu

    OTHER HELPFUL COMMANDS

    To get a list of your list's settings and subscribers, use the REVIEW command. 

    Review example:

    To get general information on how to use listserver, use the HELP command:

      To: listproc@georgetown.edu
      help

    To get specific information on a particular listserver command, send the following command:

      To: listproc@georgetown.edu
      help command_name

    FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS FOR LISTPROC LIST OWNERS

    SPECIAL NOTES: 

    • In commands requiring your input, such input is CAPITALIZED.
      For example, in the following you must supply the LIST_NAME, CURRENT_PASSWORD and NEW_PASSWORD: conf LIST_NAME CURRENT_PASSWORD password NEW_PASSWORD
    • So, for the list "testlist1" with password "easy2guess" and new password "hard2guess", you would rewrite the above as: conf testlist1 easy2guess password hard2guess
    • Note that in this command the word "password" is a parameter and does not represent either the old or the new password.

    QUESTIONS: 

    1.   Initially, should I let my users subscribe themselves to my list, or subscribe them myself? 
    2.   How do I verify user addresses for subscribing to my list? 
    3.   What are the consequences of a list set to send-by-subscribers? 
    4.   What are the consequences of a list set to send-by-all? 
    5.   How do I stop error messages and subscriptions messages to a certain owner? 
    6.   How do I change my list password? 
    7.   What are the welcome and info files for, and how do I use them? 
    8.   How do I unlock my list? 
    9.   How do I browse my subscribers file with the edit command? 
    10. How do I add large numbers of subscribers to my list?
    11. I sent the same message twice because the first message had an error, but the second message isn't going through... 
    12. Why are commands submitted to listproc being rejected with errors or unrecognizable commands?

    ANSWERS:

    1. Initially, should I let my users subscribe themselves to my list, or subscribe them myself? If you let your users subscribe themselves to your list, then they will subscribe with an address which they send email from. If you subscribe users yourself, then you should use a verified email address for each of them (see #2). 

    2. How do I verify user addresses for subscribing to my list? Check the From: header field in messages you have received from the users. This represents at least one address which they send email from. 

    3. What are the consequences of a list set to send-by-subscribers? A list closed to mail from anyone but subscribers and owners requires that subscriber addresses be verified in order to post messages to the list. This is not a problem if your subscribers will be subscribing themselves. It is only when you as an owner will be subscribing user addresses to your list that you must be concerned with address verification (see #2). If a user tries to post a message from an account which is not subscribed, the post will be rejected by listproc. 

    4. What are the consequences of a list set to send-by-all? A list open to mail from anyone requires no verification of address for the poster of the message. Therefore, with a list set to send-by-all, you need not be concerned whether subscriber addresses are verified. However, you may be concerned that non-subscribers can post to your list. As spamming is becoming an increasing problem for list owners, this is not a recommended option. 

    5. How do I stop error messages and subscription messages to a specific owner? As the owner, you can set your own owner preferences. To turn off subscription messages, ignored messages, and error messages for yourself as an owner, send the following message:

      To: listproc@georgetown.edu
      set your_list_name preference -CCIGNORE -CCERRORS -CCSUBSCRIBE

    6. How do I change my list password? To change your list's current password to "mickeymouse", send the following message:

      To: listproc@georgetown.edu
      config LIST_NAME CURRENT_PASSWORD password mickeymouse

    7. What are the welcome and info files for, and how do I use them? Two very important files are the welcome and info files. The welcome file is a message automatically sent out to all new subscribers. The info file is sent out to anyone requesting information from ListProc about your list. Both files should give the list name, names and email addresses of list owners or moderators, purpose of the list, and any special rules and regulations pertaining to the list. The welcome file should additionally contain a welcome message. Note that the welcome message appears at the end of the system welcome message. To get your current welcome or info file, send a command of the following format:

      To: listproc@georgetown.edu
      edit LIST_NAME LIST_PASSWORD info -nolock
      edit LIST_NAME LIST_PASSWORD welcome -nolock

    Be sure to use the -nolock parameter, otherwise you'll need to unlock your list. When replacing or adding a new welcome or info file, the text of the file follows the put command. To replace or add a new welcome file, send the following:

      To: listproc@georgetown.edu
      put LIST_NAME LIST_PASSWORD welcome [ text for info file ]

    To replace or add a new info file, send the following:

      To: listproc@georgetown.edu
      put LIST_NAME LIST_PASSWORD info [ text for info file ]

    8. How do I unlock my list? To unlock your list, send the following command:

      To: listproc@georgetown.edu
      unlock LIST_NAME LIST_PASSWORD

    9. How do I browse my subscribers file with the edit command? When using the EDITcommand to browse your list's subscribers file, use the -nolock flag. This is because EDIT automatically locks list- specific commands when used without the -nolock flag. Example:

      To: listproc@georgetown.edu
      edit LIST_NAME LIST_PASSWORD subscribers -nolock


    10. How do I add large numbers of subscribers to my list? The maximum command length for ADD commands (and any other listserver commands) is 1024 bytes. This translates to about 25 or so addresses per command. So, to add 100 addresses, try something like the following: 

    add LIST_NAME LIST_PASSWORD NO_1@georgetown.edu List Subscriber
    add LIST_NAME LIST_PASSWORD NO_2@georgetown.edu List Subscriber
    add LIST_NAME LIST_PASSWORD NO_25@georgetown.edu List Subscriber
    add LIST_NAME LIST_PASSWORD NO_26@georgetown.edu List Subscriber
    add LIST_NAME LIST_PASSWORD NO_50@georgetown.edu List Subscriber
    add LIST_NAME LIST_PASSWORD NO_51@georgetown.edu List Subscriber
    add LIST_NAME LIST_PASSWORD NO_75@georgetown.edu List Subscriber
    add LIST_NAME LIST_PASSWORD NO_76@georgetown.edu List Subscriber
    add LIST_NAME LIST_PASSWORD NO_100@georgetown.edu List Subscriber

    11.  I sent the same message twice because the first message had an error, but the second message isn't going through...  The problem is that Listproc won't accept duplicate, identical messages.  The system assumes that duplicate messages might indicate a mail loop (such as vacation messages bouncing between two people).  

    12.  Many times this occurs due to the use of HTML in the body of email sent to listproc.  All commands sent to the list processor, listproc@georgetown.edu should be sent in plain text format.  Listproc will fail to parse commands wrapped in HTML.  Plain text can be selected from the Format drop down in the active email window of most clients.

    If you need to send any message a second time, make a change to the text of the message.  The change can be very simple:  add a hyphen, an extra word, a colon, the date --- anything that will change the number of characters in the message.  The second message will then be distributed to your list.

    ADDITIONAL HELP

    Additional online documentation regarding Listproc can be found at http://uis.georgetown.edu/training/handouts/listproc.html or at the CREN web site.

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