Information for Mailing List Administrators

The list administrator adds and deletes members of a list. He or she decides who is allowed to post messages, and whether these messages are moderated before they are posted. A privileged list administrator can add or remove additional list administrators.

When a new list is created, the person who requests the list is automatically set as the list administrator.

List maintenance

Related Topics:



Add New Subscribers - One at a Time

  1. Visit http://lists.brandeis.edu
  2. At the bottom of the page, log in with your UNet name and password.
  3. Click the "Your Subscriptions" button in the upper-right-hand corner, and choose the list.
  4. Click the "Admin" button on the left side of the screen.
  5. If you do not see "Admin" listed, you may not be an administrator for this list. Contact the ITRC at x6-4739 for support.
  6. From the List Admin menu, select "Subscribers".
  7. Beneath "Add one email address", enter the desired e-mail address.
  8. Click the "Add" button directly to the right.
  9. A welcome e-mail message will be sent to the new list subscriber to let him or her know that he or she has been added. If you do not wish to send this message, click on the "Quiet" button when adding a new name to the list.


Note: Public lists do not require an administrator to add users. Anyone can subscribe him or herself to a public list simply by clicking subscribe while viewing the list information published at http://lists.brandeis.edu

Add New Subscribers - Multiple Add

To add more than one subscriber at a time, follow the above instructions and select the "Multiple add" button on the Subscribers page. In the subsequent text box, enter your list of email addresses, one per line.

Add New List Administrator

If you are a privileged List Administrator for a list, you may add additional administrators.

  1. Login to the list at http://lists.brandeis.edu
  2. Click the "Your Subscriptions" button in the upper-right-hand corner, and choose the list.
  3. Click the "Admin" button on the left side of the screen.
  4. From the List Admin menu, select "Edit List Config".
  5. Select "List Definition".
  6. In the Owners section, enter the new name and e-mail address.
  7. Choose "mail" from the drop-down menu next to reception mode.
  8. When you are done entering information, you must click the "Update Values" button either at the top or bottom of the screen in order for the change to take place.

If you are not a privileged List Administrator, or the person listed as the List Admin is no longer at Brandeis, please contact the Tech Desk at extension x6-7782 or e-mail itservice@brandeis.edu.

Moderate Discussion List

Both list administrators and subscribers can send e-mails to a moderated discussion list. All messages go first to a moderator for approval before they are sent. If you are a privileged List Administrator for a discussion list, you may add and designate moderators.  In order for List Administrators to moderate a discussion list, they must also be added as moderators.

  1. Login to the list at http://lists.brandeis.edu
  2. Click the "Your Subscriptions" button in the upper-right-hand corner, and choose the list.
  3. Click the "Admin" button on the left side of the screen.
  4. From the List Admin menu, select "Edit List Config".
  5. Select "List Definition".
  6. In the Moderators section, enter the new name and e-mail address.
  7. Choose "mail" from the drop-down menu next to reception mode.
  8. When you are done entering information, you must click the "Update Values" button either at the top or bottom of the screen in order for the change to take place.

Moderators receive an e-mail message containing each posting to the discussion list. Within the body of this e-mail message, they click either a link to reject the e-mail or a link to approve it and send it to the rest of the list subscribers.

Email Aliases and Posting

If you have an email alias for your Brandeis account and are added as a list administrator or subscriber with this address, you must also login with the alias in order to access the list at http://lists.brandeis.edu.

An example: Your UNet ID is joeschmoe@brandeis.edu, and you also receive email sent to the alias schmoe@brandeis.edu. A friend adds you as an administrator to a group mailing list with schmoe@brandeis.edu. You must login with that address in order to access the list.

To create an email alias or to find out whether you have one, login to https://unet.brandeis.edu/cgi-bin/login/mail using your UNet ID and password.

Email Reply Settings

The default setting for new mailing list is that the messages sent in reply to emails from the list are directed to the sender of the original message and not to the entire list of subscribers.

As the list administrator, you may choose to change this setting so that all of the reply messages are sent out to the entire list of subscribers.

  1. Login to the list at http://lists.brandeis.edu
  2. Click the "Your Subscriptions" button in the upper-right-hand corner, and choose the list.
  3. Click the "Admin" button on the left side of the screen.
  4. From the List Admin menu, select "Edit List Config".
  5. Select "Sending/reception setup".
  6. In the "reply_to_header" section, choose "list" from the drop down menu next to value.
  7. Choose "mail" from the drop-down menu next to reception mode.
  8. When you are done, you must click the "Update" button at the bottom of the screen in order for the change to take place.

Prepend Custom Subject Line

As the list administrator, you may want to prepend a word or phrase in the subject line so that subscribers can quickly identify a mailing list message (e.g., you may want all mail sent from the list Happy-Brandeis-Students to include [HBS] before every subject line).

  1. Login to the list at http://lists.brandeis.edu
  2. Click the "Your Subscriptions" button in the upper-right-hand corner, and choose the list.
  3. Click the "Admin" button on the left side of the screen.
  4. From the List Admin menu, select "Edit List Config".
  5. Select "Sending/reception setup".
  6. In the " Subject tagging (custom_subject)" section, type the word or phrase into the text box area.
    • Please note that most email programs only display about 40 characters in a typical subject line, so brevity is key.
  7. When you are done, you must click the "Update" button at the bottom of the screen in order for the change to take place.


Append Custom Message Footer

As the list administrator, you may want to append a custom footer to each message sent to your list. This footer may contain information on the purpose of the list, how to unsubscribe, and contact information for the list administrators.

  1. Login to the list at http://lists.brandeis.edu
  2. Click the "Your Subscriptions" button in the upper-right-hand corner, and choose the list.
  3. Click the "Admin" button on the left side of the screen.
  4. From the List Admin menu, select "Customizing"
  5. From the drop-down menu at the top of the page, select "Message Footer" and click the "Edit" button.
  6. Type your footer into the text box, and click the "Save" button to save the footer.


You may wish to include in your footer some contact information for the list, and instructions on how to unsubscribe from the list.

Inviting New Subscribers

You may invite new subscribers to join your list by sending them an invitation message. When you invite a new subscriber, he or she receives an email inviting them to join the list. The recipient may then opt in to the list by replying to the message. If the recipient is not interested, they may simply ignore the message and they will not be subscribed to the list.

First, customize the invitatation message to describe your list to potential subscribers:

  1. Login to the list at http://lists.brandeis.edu
  2. Click the "Your Subscriptions" button in the upper-right-hand corner, and choose the list.
  3. Click the "Admin" button on the left side of the screen.
  4. From the List Admin menu, select "Customizing"
  5. From the drop-down menu at the top of the page, select "Subscribing Invitation Message" and click the "Edit" button.
  6. Edit the message as follows:
    1. Do not edit the first six lines of the message.
    2. Include instructions on how the invitee may subscribe to the message: they may subscribe by replying to the message without editing the subject line. Note that the invitee may choose not to subscribe by simply ignoring the message.
    3. You may also wish to include other information, including a description of the list, the expected volume of mail the list will generate, and contact information for the list owner.
  7. When finished, click Save and the message will be updated.


Now you may send an invitation message:

  1. Open your email client. The email address you use with your email client must be the same as the list owner address.
  2. Create a new email address, leaving the subject line blank, and address it to sympa@lists.brandeis.edu.
  3. For each email address you would like to invite, include a line in the body of the email in the following format: 
    invite [listname] [email address] [name
    Replace [listname] with the name of your list (i.e. "happybrandeisstudents"), [email address] with the address of the potential subscriber, and [name] with the potential subscriber's name. You may omit the subscriber's name if necessary.
  4. Send the message.
  5. You will receive a confirmation email from sympa@lists.brandeis.edu.

Related Topics

Support for Sympa Mailing Lists

Contact or drop by the Tech Desk | x67782 | itservice@brandeis.edu
This page was last modified on: May 27, 2008