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Majordomo2 list server
Introduction to List Administration As the owner of a Majordomo mailing list, there are several basic duties you will need to perform: configuration, moderation, subscriber management, document management, and monitoring. Each of these duties will be outlined in this document. A separate, detailed help file is available for each duty. This document assumes that your mailing list has already been created. If that is not the case, see "help createlist" for an introduction to list creation. In the examples in this document, wherever you see this word: LISTNAME substitute the name of any mailing list at lists.mj2.org. Wherever you see this word: ADDRESS substitute an e-mail address. Interfaces ---------- There are several ways to issue administrative commands. The most common way is to use e-mail. Commands should be mailed to majordomo@lists.mj2.org Commands should always be placed in the body of the e-mail messages, never in the Subject header. Majordomo only processes commands in plain text or HTML parts of a message, although it is possible to use attachments in some circumstances. See "help command_parser" for more information. In addition, if you have shell access for the computer on which Majordomo runs, you may be able to use the mj_shell program (see "help mj_shell" for more details). mj_shell allows you to type Majordomo commands at the command line. The mj_shell commands use the same syntax as the e-mail commands. Finally, if Majordomo is configured to use the WWW, there will be an interface for list administrators at the following location: https://mail.kspei.com/cgi-bin/mj_wwwadm/domain=lists.mj2.org and an interface for list subscribers at https://mail.kspei.com/cgi-bin/mj_wwwusr/domain=lists.mj2.org The rest of this document, and most of the Majordomo help system, assumes that you are using either the e-mail or the shell interface. The WWW interfaces have separate instructions. Passwords --------- If you want to perform administrative tasks, you have to tell Majordomo your administrative password. The easiest way to do this is to always use this command first... default password YOURPASSWORD ...substituting the list's administrative password for YOURPASSWORD. For more details, see "help admin_passwords". Configuration ------------- There are many different ways to run an electronic mailing list. Some common differences are: * Is the list public or private? * Who can post messages to a mailing list? * Can the subscribers receive messages in a digest? * How are bounces (error messages from addresses that are unable to receive mail) handled? * Will a monthly reminder be sent to the subscribers? The answers to all of these questions are determined by your mailing list's configuration settings. Because there are over 100 settings, they have been divided into several categories. Each setting has a separate help page. There are three basic commands used to manage the settings. The configshow command is used to see the current value of a setting. For example, configshow GLOBAL whereami To change a setting, the configset command is used. For example, configset LISTNAME access_password_override = 0 To return a modified setting to its default value, the configdef command is used. For example, configdef GLOBAL taboo_body For more details, see "help admin_config". Moderation ---------- Sometimes, when someone attempts to subscribe to your mailing list or post a message, approval is required before the subscription succeeds or the message is distributed on the list. When this happens, we say that the request is "stalled." Majordomo keeps track of these "pending requests" by assigning a "token identifier" to each request. It then sends the list moderators a "consult" message with instructions for approving or rejecting the request. The showtokens command will display all of the stalled requests for a mailing list. For instance, showtokens LISTNAME The token identifier for each request will look something like this: A96F-54E1-004B In the following three examples, substitute a valid token identifier for the word TOKEN. To see information about a stalled request, use the tokeninfo command: tokeninfo TOKEN To approve a stalled request, use the accept command: accept TOKEN To discard a stalled request, use the reject command: reject TOKEN To make posted messages fully moderated, change the moderate setting: configset LISTNAME moderate = 1 To allow only subscribers to post freely, change the restrict_post setting: configset LISTNAME restrict_post = LISTNAME (substitute the name of a mailing list for both instances of LISTNAME) For more details, see "help admin_moderate". To learn how to change the appearance of posted messages, and the way in which they are delivered, see "help admin_delivery". Subscriber Management --------------------- Anyone who signs up to receive messages from a mailing list is considered a subscriber. The complete list of subscribers can be displayed using the who command, who-enhanced LISTNAME If your mailing list has many subscribers, you can search the list using a pattern (see "help patterns" for more information). For example, to find all of the e-mail addresses containing "abc", use the following command: who-enhanced LISTNAME abc The who-enhanced command will show the personal settings for each subscriber (see "help set" for an explanation of the settings). To change the settings for a subscriber, use the set command. For example, the following command: set LISTNAME digest ADDRESS will cause a subscriber to receive messages bundled in a digest. You can add subscribers using the subscribe command, for example, subscribe LISTNAME ADDRESS Addresses can be removed using the unsubscribe command, for instance, unsubscribe LISTNAME ADDRESS Configuration settings such as subscribe_policy and unsubscribe_policy determine whether or not your approval is needed to join or leave your mailing list. The who_access and which_access configuration settings control who is able to see the list of subscribers. For more details, see "help admin_subscribers". Document Management ------------------- Each mailing list has a file space, part of which is public, and part private. You can see a directory of the files that are available with the index command: index-recursive LISTNAME shows the public files, and index-recursive LISTNAME / shows the entire file space, including the public directory. The archive of messages previously posted to the mailing list is usually located in the public/archive directory. Files can be retrieved from the public directory using the get command, for example: get LISTNAME FILE where FILE is the name of a file. File names beginning with a slash, '/', can only be retrieved with the get command by a list administrator. Each list has three special private documents, /faq, /info, and /intro. /faq contains frequently asked questions and answers. The faq command will retrieve this document. The newfaq command will replace this document. /info is a welcome message that new subscribers receive. The info command will retrieve this document. The newinfo command will replace this document. /intro contains an introduction to the mailing list. The intro command will retrieve this document. The newintro command will replace this document. The archive of posted messages can be reviewed with the archive command. For example, archive-index LISTNAME 50 will show a summary of the 50 most recent messages, and archive-get LISTNAME 30 will cause the 30 most recent messages to be mailed to your address individually. For more details, see "help admin_documents". Monitoring ---------- Majordomo keeps a log of every posted message and command that it processes. There are several ways in which you can see what the people on your list have been doing. Majordomo can send you notices automatically, or you can ask Majordomo for a report when the need arises. For example, the following command will show a summary of all activity on a list for the past seven days: report-summary LISTNAME 7d ALL Also, if your list is public, anyone can learn more about it with the following command: lists-full LISTNAME For more details, see "help admin_monitor". See Also: help admin_commands help admin_config help admin_delivery help admin_documents help admin_moderate help admin_monitor help admin_passwords help admin_subscribers help archive help configdef help configset help configshow help digest help lists help newfaq help newinfo help newintro help report This is the "admin" help document for Majordomo 2, version 0.1200410180. For a list of all help documents, send the following command: help topics in the body of a message to majordomo@lists.mj2.org.
For assistance, please contact the lists.mj2.org administrators.
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