Mailing lists
There are different sorts of facility which might come under the heading of "mailing list". You can keep private mailing lists as part of your own mail client program or you can set up lists which can be used by other people as well. There are two ways of managing shared lists at the University: using the the majordomo package or using an mlist. Mlists are simpler to manage but majordomo gives you more flexible control of the way the list works.
Shared mailing lists
If you want to maintain a mailing list to be shared by several users you should contact the IT Service Desk and ask for either a majordomo or an mlist to be created for you. If you have asked for a majordomo list it will be up to you to maintain it by keeping the addresses on the list up to date. An mlist is currently maintained by IT Services but we hope to provided web-based facilities to allow the owner to modify their list(s) via a web browser in the future.
Mailing lists must have a short, memorable and unique name. When asking the IT Service Desk to set up a mailing list for you, you should say what you want it to be called -- although if the name is already in use you will have to think again.
Majordomo
Majordomo is quite a complex package capable of maintaining quite large lists and exercising flexible control over how they work. There is a limit to the size of lists that Majordomo can effectively manage. A majordomo list can have members with addresses outside the University. The main advantages of a majordomo list over the simpler mlist facility described elsewhere on this page are:
- People can add themselves to a majordomo list and remove themselves
- Messages sent to majordomo lists are archived automatically
- Majordomo handles mail messages more economically than mlist
- The list owner can vet messages before they are distributed to the list members
- The list owner can administer the list by sending mail messages containing simple commands to the majordomo system
As owner of a list you will need to learn a few procedures, and you will be responsible for the conduct of the list. Further information on majordomo is available here.
To set up a majordomo list contact the IT Service Desk
Mlist
The mlist facility is suitable for small, informal groups. An mlist is a simple, closed mailing list containing a group of email addresses of your choosing. There is no control over who can send messages to the group. Currently, all maintenance is provided by IT Services so any changes must be sent to the IT Service Desk. We hope to provided web-based facilities to allow mlist owners to modify their list(s) via a web browser in the future.
To set up an mlist contact the IT Service Desk
