Getting Started
This manual is intended for Post.Office mailing list owners, and is a supplement to the Post.Office User’s Guide. We assume that you have either glanced at or have a copy of the Post.Office User’s Guide, as this manual makes frequent references to that document. If you don’t have a copy, you can ask your Postmaster for one, or feel free to grab a copy from the Software.com web site (http://www.software.com), which has a full set of Post.Office documentation for your downloading enjoyment.
The rest of this chapter gives some background information on mailing lists, and introduces the areas of the Post.Office web interface that you will be using to manage your mailing list. Chapter 2 has instructions for setting up the mailing list, while Chapter 3 is devoted to the tasks of moderating list membership and postings. Finally, Chapter 4 discusses list owner operations available in the E-mail interface.
A mailing list is a group of users who share information on a common topic. Mailing lists allow messages to be distributed to all of the list’s subscribers by submitting a message to a single address. When a message is sent to the list address, it is forwarded to all subscribers of the list, who each receive a copy of the original message.
Mailing lists are similar to bulletin board services (BBS) and the Internet’s USENET newsgroups, except that they use the medium of E-mail. A mailing list can be used for something as important as a company-wide information distribution tool, or as trivial as a television sitcom fan club.
A typical application for a mailing list is the creation of an employee list. For example, the MegaHuge, Inc. company might have a mailing list that includes all employees of the company, and which has the address all@megahuge.com. All employees of MegaHuge receive messages that are sent to this address.
Mailing lists are administered by one or more list owners, who are responsible for the operation of the list. List owners can set a wide range of subscription and posting policies, and also have the option of moderating all messages submitted to the list.
List ownership is an enormous responsibility (as far as E-mail mailing list matters are concerned, at least). The Post.Office User’s Guide hinted at the powers wielded over a mailing list by its owner, which include:
As you can see, list ownership is a pretty substantial endeavor. In fact, with the exception of a few limits and security parameters, your powers over your mailing lists are equal to those of the Postmaster himself. So treat this privileged standing with the reverence it deserves.
One of the few things that you actually can’t do with your mailing list is create it. Ordinary users such as yourself do not have access to create mailing lists; this level of access is restricted to the Postmaster. However, you can manage any mailing list that the Postmaster has created and for which you are listed as an owner.
If you want to create a new mailing list, notify your Postmaster. This is the only step in the life of a mailing list that requires Postmaster attention; once the mailing list is created with you as an owner, you become the all-powerful administrator of your own mailing list.
Your elevation to the status of list owner will be marked by the arrival of an E-mail message that informs you of the creation of the mailing list. This greeting message looks like the following:
An electronic list account has just been opened for you, and |
Included in this message are the current values for such list parameters as the list name and policies for subscription, posting, and unsubscription. These parameters are described in Chapter 2, as well as at the bottom of the greeting form.
The owner greeting message also includes two URLs. One of these, the web address which you will use to administer the list, is the same URL that you use to log in to Post.Office (see the Post.Office User’s Guide if you need help logging in). The other URL is the address to a Mailing List Summary Form for public subscription to your list, which you can distribute to potential subscribers if your list is open to remote users.
The concept of public mailing lists is a pretty important one, but you should have a better understanding of the structure and behavior of a mailing list before you can get fancy with it. We’ll take a closer look at public mailing lists in Chapter 3.
To get to the mailing list manager interface, log in to Post.Office as described in Chapter 2 of the Post.Office User’s Guide. Initially, you will see the Account Management menu. Click on the menu button at the left labeled Mailing Lists to display the Mailing List Management menu.
Figure 1-2: Mailing List Management menu
The menu contains four links, as well as a text field and execution button. These links and the forms that they invoke are described in the Post.Office User’s Guide. The menu option that is now important to us is the Manage Owned Mailing Lists link, which displays the Owned Mailing Lists menu.
All of the tasks associated with managing an owned mailing list are accessed through the Owned Mailing Lists menu. Whenever you want to add a subscriber, change a list policy, moderate submitted messages, or do anything else regarding your mailing list, this is where you start.
Figure 1-3: Owned Mailing Lists menu
The menu displays the addresses of all mailing lists that you own, as well as a short description of each one. The list address is a link to a form for setting attributes and policies of the mailing list. Three additional links for each mailing list allow you to access forms for performing other list-related operations: editing the subscriber list, moderating subscription and unsubscription requests, and moderating messages. The forms invoked from this menu are discussed in Chapters 2 and 3.
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