SUPPORT DOCUMENT

How to Create a Mailing List

This is for Computer Solutions Email/Web Hosted Customers Only.

 

 

1. Log into your control panel at www.ineedbob.com/menu

2. Click on EMAIL

3. Click on NEW MAILING LIST to the Right of the New Email Option

4. Give it a name such as "newsletter" and click SUBMIT

5. Click on the new Mailing List your just created which will be listed alone with your email accounts

6. Enter the List Owners email address. This is the address that complaints or requests from members of the list will go to.

7. See below for a example of recommended settings. Click Submit when Done.

8. From the email section of your control panel, next to the list you just created:

   a. Click on the icon After the word "Moderators" to add people who are allowed to send out emails to the list.

   b. Click on the icon After the word "Subscribers" to add people to the recipients list of who will receive the emails.

   - All people one at a time and click SUBMIT or enter or past a list of email addresses, one per line in the
     Batch Subscription area and click SUBMIT

IMPORTANT:

To send out a mass email:

   Send your message to the address you created, which is shown on the top of the list page as MAIL LIST
   If you configured your Mail List as Suggested, you will receive an email back shortly, asking you to click
   one of the links in the email. One Approved the list and sends it out, the other Rejects it and does not send it.

Many Email and Internet providers will mark your Email as Spam and may even put your website on a spamer
BlackList if you do not employ the practice of a disclaimed and removal option in your email. In the top of the list page is Help, Subscribe and UnSubscribe address for your list. You can put the Subscribe address on your website as a simple way for people to join your list. They simply send an email to that address and will get a confirmation to join. 

Suggested disclaimed that should be included on the bottom of all Mail List emails that you send out:

"You are receiving this email because you requested to join our mailing list or are a regular contact of our company. If you wish to be removed from this list please send an email to newsletter-unsubscribe@abscompany.com"

Help on this commands:

Configuring Mailing Lists

You can configure mailing list by clicking the e-mail address in the E-mail list on the Mail Manager page:

Enter the e-mail address that enables mail list subscribers to report their problems or error messages sending requests to your_mailinglist- owner@domain.com. Since EZMLM can take care of virtually all requests without human intervention, the list owner may read mail only infrequently.

By default, all messages sent to a list are kept archived. This way, subscribers can later retrieve messages from the archive. For instance, subscribers haven't been following the list for a while, or they just want to see the discussion of a specific question. E.g.: retrieve one message at a time with the -get command: your_mailinglist-get.123@domain.com(get message 123)
Read more on commands to access the ezmlm message archive. * The archive is also used to create digests. You can view mailing list archive from your Control Panel. For this, click on the magnifying glass above the Archived option: 

This will carry you to a web interface where you can view and search for monthly archived messages received by your mailing list:

Check Not Archived to disable archiving the messages sent to the list. 

You can prohibit the overall access to the archive and authorize only moderators to get at it. 

Check the Digest box to set up the mailing list with a digest function. The digest is a special kind of mailing list extension. Instead of sending separate messages, it sends out a collection of messages ordered by digest subscribers collections of messages. Digest is sent out when a predetermined time or traffic limit has been reached. Receiving digest is very convenient for users who want to follow a list, but not to participate in the discussion. Digests contain each message as it was sent out by the list. No editorials, no missing messages. If the list owner has chosen to restrict posts and archive access to subscribers, digest subscribers are automatically given the same privilege. From the subscriber point of view, the digest list for the mailing list your_mailinglist@domain.com is called your_mailinglist- digest@domain.com. You use the same commands to work with digest as you do when you work with the main list. The only difference is that you use your commands with 'digest' indication. 

Check "No prefix" to prohibit adding prefix to the subject line of each message that does not already contain it. If you want the subject line of each message that does not contain it, to include the prefix, place the text in the file DIR/prefix

Here you can restrict the access to the mailing list archive by allowing only subscribers retrieve the archive. Non-subscribers' requests will be rejected.

Usually an applicant for subscription (your_mailinglist-subscribe@domain.com) is sent a confirmation request. To confirm it, one should just reply to the message. When it is done, recipient's address is added to the database and he becomes a subscriber.
This verification mechanism tests if the person at the subscription address really wants to be a subscriber. You can always include or exclude confirmation from the subscription procedure. 

Normally, confirmation is not required to unsubscribe from a mailing list. However, this option gives added security in that one can't remove another without permission. 

Mailing list users are not allowed to list the addresses of all subscribers. Still, you can allow remote administrator to get it. The subscription log stores entries for each modification made to the subscriber database. Remote administrators can list this log or search it for specific entries. For example, listing this file allows the remote administrator to see recent additions and removals. 

In special cases, the list owner may set up the list to be message moderated. On a message moderated list, messages, instead of going directly to the list (to send messages to the list, one must know its name. If the list is called mailinglist@domain.com, just send a message to mailinglist@domain.com), are sent to one or more moderators. They can accept or reject, but not modify the message. If the message is accepted, it is sent to the list unmodified. If it is rejected, it is e-mailed back to the sender, optionally with an explanation from the moderator. On moderated lists it may take a little longer for the message to reach all the subscribers, since it has to be read and approved by at least one moderator before being sent out to the subscribers.

Here, you can allow remote administrators to edit the text files that make up most of the ezmlm responses. Replies are sent only if the target address is a remote administrator. With this switch, ezmlm replies to the -edit command with a list of the files in dir/text/. Only files where editing seems reasonable are included in the list. The remote administrator can edit any file in dir/text/ by sending e-mail containing the new text to -edit.file where "file'' is the name of the file replaced (edited). In reply to this command, ezmlm sends a message with the file and editing instructions. A "cookie'' based on the date, file name, and contents of the file is added to the ``Reply-To:'' address. The cookie becomes invalid as soon as the file has been changed, or after 27 hours, whichever is shorter. Also, the cookie cannot be used to edit any other file, even if the other file has exactly the same content.

Here you can disable posting by subscribers to the mailing list, so they will only receive messages posted by moderators. This is usually chosen to send announcement or notifications where the interaction between recipients is not intended. 

If you enable this function, users will be required to request to the remote administrator in order to retrieve mail list archives. Otherwise, archive will be accessible only to the remote administrator. 

With this option enabled, it will process commands sent in the subject to list-request@host. 

A remote administrator is an address with the rights to do certain administrative tasks remotely by E-mail. Depending on how the list is configured, remote administrators may have the right/ability to list subscribers, search for subscriber addresses by name, add and remove subscriber addresses and/or edit the texts that are sent in reply to list commands. 

Mailing lists may use subscription moderation. Subscription to these lists is identical to the subscription process in mailing lists, except that after confirmation the request is passed on to the list moderator(s). One becomes a subscriber only after his request has been approved by a moderator, i.e. he replies to the "Reply-To:" address. 

You can set up your mailing list to allow posts from subscribers only. In this case posts received from non-subscribers will be rejected and sent back.

To save changes, click Submit.