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Basic Information

List Name:

The Majordomo list name or identifier; specified by the List Owner. This name must end with ‘-list’ or ‘-l’ to differentiate it from usernames, newsgroups, etc. Can include numbers as well as letters; cannot contain spaces or any special characters with the exception of the hyphen ‘-‘ or underscore ‘_’. Non-case-sensitive (upper/lower case not significant). No limit on length, however, should be short and informative.

List Owner:

The BU login name of the prospective List Owner. Automatically inserted in request form. Note: to have more than one List Owner for a particular list, it is permissible for two or more people to share the List Password (below).

List Password:

Used to make administrative changes to the List and for approving posts to moderated lists. Limited to 8 characters; cannot contain spaces; case-sensitive (case is significant – can contain upper/lower case characters). Note: do not use your Kerberos password for a Majordomo mailing list.

Short Description:

A brief (no more than one line) description of the List (for administrative use).

List Description: (in detail)

A longer description of the List; sent to new Subscribers.

Estimated Subscribers:

Expected approximate number of active Subscribers (for administrative use).

Frequency of mailings:

Expected (approximate) number/frequency of mailings (for administrative use).

Size of mailings:

Expected physical size (approximate number of bytes) of mailings (for administrative use).

List Options

Several list attributes must be specified when the List is established. These include:

List membership:

Default: closed. In a closed list, all subscription requests are forwarded to the List Owner for approval.
Other options: Open — anyone may subscribe without approval.

Subscription privacy:

Default: Private to List Owner — only the List Owner can review the List of Subscribers.
Other options: Public — anyone can review the membership of a list by sending a request to the Majordomo server. Private to List Subscribers — only list Subscribers can review (retrieve names and email addresses of all Subscribers).

Restricted/Unrestricted:

Option: Restricted — Recommended — Only specific people may send emails to the List. The default Restricted setting allow List Members and the List Owner to send emails to the List. You may further restrict who can send email by specifying a set of people or criteria with your request.
Other option: Unrestricted — Anyone can send mail to the List.

Moderated/Unmoderated:

Default: Unmoderated — anyone can mail to List, no approval required from List Owner for postings.
Other options: Moderated — anyone can mail to List, but List Owner’s approval with List Password required for all postings. Please note that Moderated lists can be labor-intensive; every single post to the list must be individually approved with List Password by List Owner.

Subscription/Sign off notification:

Default: Notice. List Owner receives notification of new subscriptions and sign offs.
Other options: No notification — notice is not sent to the List Owner when someone subscribes to or unsubscribes from a list.

Replies to list mail:

Default: Replies will go only to sender — whenever anyone replies to a posting, a copy will go only to the sender of the original posting.
Other options: Reply-all — whenever anyone replies all to a posting, a copy will go to all Subscribers on the list.

List confidentiality:

Default: Hidden — the list name will not be included in a display of all Majordomo lists at BU (generated by sending the ‘lists’ command to the Majordomo server).
Other options: Displayed — the list name will be included in a display of all Majordomo lists at BU.

Other Majordomo-Related Terms

List owner:

The person responsible for creating and maintaining a mailing list. The owner can do everything a subscriber can do, and can also make changes to the list itself. The owner can add or delete people, change the description of the list, approve posts to moderated lists, approve subscription requests to closed lists, and more. Any of these changes can be implemented by sending commands to the Majordomo server via email.

Kerberos password:

Campus systems which use the BU login name are required to use a special form of secure password called a Kerberos password.

Subscriber:

A list member; someone who has been added to a Majordomo list.