Getting Started: How to be a List Owner (LISTSERV)
How To be a List Owner
The purpose of this article is to provide basic information on how to manage a LISTSERV list if you are a list owner. It will not cover all possible commands and options that a list owner has, but just enough to do the basic functions. If you need more information, please submit a ticket to request help from the LISTSERV administrator.
Audience
Marist staff or faculty who act as a list owner. A list owner is designated by the Marist LISTSERV administrator.
Introduction: What is a list "owner"?
LISTSERV is a system that can manage many email lists, both large and small. Each list has to have at least one person who has the authority to manage the list. This is called the list "owner". A list can have more than one owner, so responsibilities can be shared among multiple people, but there must be at least one. The list owner has the power to add or remove list subscribers. If the list is a "closed list", only the owner can add new subscribers. This article will cover subscriber management. If you need to know more about other list owner abilities, please contact the Marist LISTSERV administrator.
Members of a list are called "subscribers". In an open list, someone can subscribe to the list themselves via email. In a closed list, subscription requests are sent to the list owner. Only the list owner can add a subscriber to a closed list. This allows the list owner to control who receives emails from the list. In both an open and closed list, the subscriber can remove themselves from the list. The list owner can also remove an address, if necessary. The list owner can also review who is subscribed to the list whenever they wish.
What is a list "moderator"?
If a list is set up to be "moderated", all submissions are sent to the moderator for review. The moderator then decides if the email will be allowed to be posted to the list or rejected. If it is allowed, the moderator just clicks a link in the notification email and LISTSERV will release the posting. If the email is to be rejected, the moderator must notify the Marist LISTSERV administrator to remove it. A moderator cannot control who is subscribed to the list, only whether or not an email is posted to it. The list owner and moderator can be the same person or different people. There can be more than one moderator.
Moderated lists can be set up with a "special senders" list. That is a list of email addresses of people who can post to the list without having to be reviewed by the moderator first. An example would be the Office of Safety and Security at Marist. They are allowed to send email to the main Marist lists without being reviewed since their emails will likely be urgent information. In most cases, with a closed list, the list of "special senders" will be trusted people who understand what is appropriate to post to the list.
Communicating with LISTSERV
All commands are sent to LISTSERV are done through email. The email should be addressed to LISTSERV@listserv.it.marist.edu. Please note: commands are sent to the LISTSERV itself, NOT to the email list. If you send the email to the list address, it will be posted to everyone on the list.
The content of the email should be ONLY the command you wish to issue. Do not include any extra text or signatures as LISTSERV will try to interpret them as commands. Here is a sample email:
To: listserv@listserv.it.marist.edu
From: Sue.Brown@marist.edu
Subject: command
review abc-list
The email above will send the review command to LISTSERV on behalf of list owner, Sue Brown. She will receive an email back from LISTSERV with a list of all subscribers on "abc-list". You can put anything you want in the subject of the email, LISTSERV ignores that.
List Owner Commands
To add a subscriber to a list, the command is:
add <list name> <email address> <First name> <Last name>
add abc-list mary.jones@gmail.com Mary Jones
Once LISTSERV processes the command, you will receive an email with the results.
To remove a subscriber from a list, the command is:
delete <list name> <email address>
delete abc-list mary.jones@gmail.com
LISTSERV will send you an email with the results when the command is completed. Once deleted, the subscriber will no longer receive email from the list. If needed, you can reverse this by adding the address back to the list.
Checking to see if an address is on the list. You can do this by using the SCAN command. Or, you can do a review of the list, which sends you a copy of the entire list of subscribers.
scan <list name> <search text>
scan abc-list jones
In this example, LISTSERV will send you an email containing a list of all subscribers on the abc-list list with the text "jones" in their address.
review <list name>
review abc-list
With the REVIEW command, LISTSERV will send an email containing a list of all subscribers to the list. It will also let you know how many addresses are subscribed to the list at the time of the review.