Mailman Mailing Lists

Auto-responder

[Nov 23, 2009 14:09] Web access to Microsoft Live@edu accounts now works.

Mailman Mailing Lists allow auto responses to be returned to the sender of an email sent to the mailing list, list -owner, and/or list -request email addresses. The Auto-responder feature of Mailman allows list administrators to set up vacation messages when they will be away from their list or to communicate important list-related information to people sending messages to the mailing list.
You must be an administrator of the list for which you want to enable/disable the Auto-responder.
The Auto-responder is an automated process so it may reply to spam messages, confirming the email address of the mailing list is valid, resulting in more spam.

Enabling the Auto-responder

  1. Access the list administration website for your mailing list.
  2. Click on the Configuration Category Auto-responder.
  3. To configure Mailman to generate auto responses to:
    • Senders of email to the mailing list :
      1. Select Yes next to Should Mailman send an auto-response to mailing list posters?
      2. Enter the text of the auto response message next to the heading Auto-response text to send to mailing list posters or upload a file by clicking on Browse, navigating to the file on your computer, selecting it, and clicking Open.
        Note: The email message sent to the mailing list will be distributed per the configuration of the list.
    • Senders of email to the list -owner address:
      1. Select Yes next to Should Mailman send an auto-response to emails sent to the -owner address?
      2. Enter the text of the auto response message next to the heading Auto-response text to send to -owner emails or upload a file by clicking on Browse, navigating to the file on your computer, selecting it, and clicking Open.
        Note: The email message to the list -owner address will be sent to the list administrator(s).
    • Senders of email to the list -request address:
      1. Select Yes next to Should Mailman send an auto-response to emails sent to the -request address? If you choose yes, decide whether you want Mailman to discard the original email, or forward it on to the system as a normal mail command.
      2. Enter the text of the auto response message next to the heading Auto-response text to send to -request emails or upload a file by clicking on Browse, navigating to the file on your computer, selecting it, and clicking Open.
        Note: The email sent to the list -request address will be routed per your selection on whether to discard or forward the message for processing
  4. Next to the heading Number of days between auto-responses..., enter the number of days Mailman should wait before sending a second auto response to the same poster. If you enter 0 there will be no grace period (i.e. an auto-response will be sent for every message received).
  5. Click the Submit Your Changes button when finished configuring the Auto-responder.

Disabling the Auto-responder

  1. Access the list administration website for your mailing list.
  2. Click on the Configuration Category Auto-responder.
  3. To disable auto-responses to mailing list posters?
    1. Select No next to Should Mailman send an auto-response to mailing list posters?
  4. To disable auto-responses to emails sent to the -owner address?
    1. Select No next to Should Mailman send an auto-response to emails sent to the -owner address?
  5. To disable auto-response to emails sent to the -request address?
    1. Select No next to Should Mailman send an auto-response to emails sent to the -request address?...
  6. Click the Submit Your Changes button when finished configuring the Auto-responder.

If you have questions regarding Mailman mailing lists, contact the ITC Help Desk. Please include your phone number so we will be able to reach you.

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