A mailing list is basically an email address or mailbox that forwards email messages (i.e., posts) to a collection of subscriber email addresses. List management software applies rules to manage email sent to this list. Mailing lists are frequently used as a forum for a discussion on a particular topic, such as standards development.

An organization may have many types of mailing lists, but here are descriptions of the Kavi Mailing List Manager default types.

When you log into the site, go to the My Account page and click 'View Available Lists'. All available mailing lists will be displayed.

Mailing List Home has all the links you need to manage your subscriptions. Members can log into the web site, then go to the 'My Account' page where your account information will be displayed. Click 'View Available Lists' and the 'My Mailing Lists' page will display all mailing lists that are available to you. Find the list whose subscription you want to change and click the 'Visit List Home' link for that list. Now you are on the 'Mailing List Home' page and can change your subscriptions by clicking or unclicking the available subscription types.

If this list is open to public subscriptions, 'Mailing List Home' will be public and you may subscribe or unsubscribe via a link that generates an email request without logging in. Note that email subscription requests are handled in batches, so these requests will not kick in immediately, whereas subscription changes performed by logged in users are effective immediately.

If the Kavi® Mailing List Manager is configured to handle emailed subscription requests, it automatically sends an email in response to every subscription request it receives, requesting confirmation from the owner of the email address that they do in fact wish to subscribe or unsubscribe. This confirmation prevents people from maliciously subscribing or unsubscribing others, and makes sure that email addresses of new subscribers are good (i.e. does not bounce) before adding the email address to the list of subscribers.

Depending on list configuration, you may be able to subscribe or unsubscribe via email. Remember to send your subscribe and unsubscribe commands to the administrative address instead of the mailing list. Not only is it more effective, it's a good way to avoid getting nasty messages from other list subscribers.

When you join a group you generally receive a welcome message. Read the email, then save it in a safe little corner of your hard drive. It generally contains useful information such as how to unsubscribe from the mailing list. It's so much easier to get off of a mailing list if you've saved that information. And there are going to be times when you'll want to get off a mailing list as quickly as you can (such as when you are receiving 100 useless messages a day.

If you have tried to unsubscribe but it doesn't seem to have worked for some reason, see Help, I'm unable to unsubscribe!

A subscription type indicates whether a subscriber receives messages posted to a list individually or in digest format.

It is important to change your email address promptly, because the list will automatically unsubscribe any address that repeatedly bounces messages sent from the list. If you wait too long to change your email address, the Mailing List Manager will not find any subscriptions that have been automatically unsubscribed, so you'll have to resubscribe to these yourself.

If you are a member, simply log in and edit the email address on the My Account page and your email address will be changed on all your mailing list subscriptions. Click the Edit link so you and add the new email address in the Primary Email Address text box under the Contact Information heading. Depending on organization policy, you may be required to use a company email address.

If you are a public subscriber, you will have to unsubscribe from your old address, then resubscribe from the new one.

Not every mailing list has archives, and even if it does, access may be restricted to logged in members and subscribers only, to subscribers only or even to administrators only. Check the list's Policy and Usage Statement on the Mailing List Home page for more information.

Kavi Groups archives are searchable, but Mailing List Manager archives are not. Your organization's website may provide additional custom search functionality.

Assuming you are allowed to post messages to this list, either reply to an email or compose a new email with a To: line address following the basic format listname@example.org. Writing a good email message for a mailing list is not always as simple as it may seem—see Composing Email to Post to a List for more information.

To protect the quality of list content, most lists restrict access to posting. To learn more about posting rules for a list, see the Policy and Usage statement on the Mailing List Home page. It's important to remember that as far as a mailing list is concerned, you are your email address, so if the list only allows subscribers to post, you will have to use the email address under which you are subscribed. If you send email from an unknown address, the mailing list has no way of recognizing you as a subscriber, so it will handle your email as it would a message from any public user.

The answer depends on list configuration. Some lists allow anyone to post (i.e., public lists), while others are closed to all except moderators (i.e., most announcement lists), and others may allow anyone to submit a post, but all posts will be sent for moderation. Another type of list sends posts from known subscribers and moderators directly to the list, but moderates or rejects posts from public (i.e., unknown users).

This last type of list, such as lists based on the Closed Private Discussion Group or the Moderated Private Discussion Group list types, supports a 'Poster List'. Your alternate email address can be added to this list to grant you direct posting privileges when you send posts from this address. If the organization's website is configured to collect alternate email addresses and you have enter an alternate address on signup, the system automatically adds your alternate address to the 'Poster List' when you subscribe to a list of this type. If your alternate email address wasn't added automatically because you added the alternate address after adding a subscription or for any other reason, you may be added to the 'Poster List' by a moderator (if the list is moderated) or administrator.

Remember, a mailing list has no concept of you as a person. To a mailing list, you are your email address. If you send messages from an email address that is unknown to the system, the mailing list classifies you (the sender) as a public user and automatically applies the action it always applies to messages from the public. If the list allows public posting, you're home free. If the list moderates public messages, your message will be sent for moderation. If the moderator recognizes your alternate address, they just may select your message out from all the others in the queue for approval. If the moderator knows you and list configuration permits, a moderator or list administer may manually add you to the 'Poster List'.

Mailing lists come in a wide variety of flavors. Certain features make more sense for certain types of mailing lists than others. To find out which features are offered by a specific list, see the Policy and Usage Statement on the Mailing List Home page.

Lists that allow users to subscribe via email accept other commands via email as well, including commands to unsubscribe and retrieve messages from the list archives (if the archives are configured to be retrievable by email from anyone). These commands are also called "email address commands," because the command is used as an email address and when the list receives an email at one of the command addresses it executes that commmand.

If you are interested in subscribing, unsubscribing or retrieving archives from this kind of list and want a list of all available email commands, go to the Mailing List Home page and click the Email Command Help link to open a window with the request information prefilled. Just send the email and the Kavi Mailing List Manager will automatically send you the list of commands.

If this link isn't available and the list accepts email commands, the Mailing List Home page frequently provides instructions you can follow to request email commands. This is as simple as sending an email with the command address in the 'To:' field. This command usually follows the general format 'listname-help@example.org'.

To use one of the email address commands, just follow the instructions in the email command help, sending an email with the appropriate command in the 'To:' line. It's okay to leave the message body empty, since the automated system only reads the command and sender's email address. For more information, see Ezmlm Email Address Commands.

If a list doesn't allow the public to subscribe by email, then it won't accept public email commands, either. If the list only allows you to subscribe under your primary or business email address, you will have to use the same address to send commands. Private lists may not accept email commands from anyone except moderators.

Mailing lists are extremely flexible and can serve many different kinds of purposes. A list's policies are tailored according to the purpose of the mailing list and the policies of the organization. For information about a specific list, see the Policy and Usage Statement on the Mailing List Home page.

A moderator is an individual who acts as gatekeeper for a mailing list. Most lists are moderated; some are not. When a list is described as being moderated in the Kavi Mailing List Manager interfaces and help, it refers to moderated posting. When a list has moderated posting, any email sent to the list by someone who does not have direct posting privileges will be sent to the moderator for approval. The moderator will review the message to assure that the content is appropriate before posting it. If list posting is unmoderated, authorized users can post messages directly.

Subscription moderation is rare, but if your list uses moderated subscription, moderators are responsible for screening and approving all subscription requests submitted via email.

There are many reasons why you may not be able to post to a list—even if this is a list to which you've posted before. The ability to post messages is usually subject to rules imposed to preserve the quality of content posted to the list. These rules may include restrictions on who is allowed to post and the message format and content.

For more information, see How do I send email to a list?.

The copy was rejected by a spam filter implementing Sender Policy Framework (SPF). The spam filter has peeked inside the email's envelope header to determine the domain from which your email orginated and whether it matches the domain in the 'From:' field. (i.e., whether email with 'username@example.com' originated from the 'example.com' domain). Since your email was sent through the organizaton's website, it originated from the 'example.org' domain, rather than the 'example.com' domain, so the spam filter rejected it.

There are several different scenarios that might affect your ability to unsubscribe successfully, depending on the type of subscription and rules for unsubscribing. This information should be available in the Policy and Usage statement on the Mailing List Home page. Here are the scenarios along with the best course of action for each:

Email can bounce for any number of reasons. The fact that you have received an email bounce warning indicates there was a temporary problem delivering messages to your address that has now been resolved. The warning message was sent by bounce-handling software that monitors bounced messages to test whether mail can be delivered to your address. Since the message was successfully delivered, the bounce-handling software will take your address off the list of addresses it is testing, so you won't receive any more warnings, and you may safely ignore the message.

The most common reason that a message sent to a mailing list bounces is that the message was sent from an address that doesn't have permission to post directly to the list. This may sound odd at first, but there is a difference in the human and mailing list software perspective. A human thinks of an email address as belonging to a list user, but to a mailing list, a list user IS their email address...and posting privileges belong to the email address, rather than the user.

When the list receives a message it determines the sender's address, looks it up on its subscriber lists. If the mailing list finds the address, it applies the posting access rules that apply to all addresses on that list and posts, rejects or sends the message for moderation accordingly. If this happens to you, check the lists policies and procedures to see if you should be allowed to post or not, then be sure to send messages from an account that has posting privileges.

The second most common reason messages bounce is that they aren't constructed or addressed properly. For instance, the message may have an empty 'Subject:' field, in which case it will be rejected by a spam filter, or there may be a typo in the address or it might have been sent to the wrong address (double check to see if this is the case).

Larger organizations and mailing lists tend to be inundated with so many bounce messages that it could require several full-time personnel just to monitor bounces. Even though all email bounces would be monitored in an ideal world, in reality it is seldom practical. For this reason, it is generally up to users to report bounces and other problems that may or may not be bounce-related.