Sympa Configuration FAQ

I want to set up an announcement list but I don't want anyone else to be able to send to it. How do I set that up?

You need to create a "newsletter" list.
To do that create a list of any type.
(I recommend "private" so people won't find the list and try to subscribe themselves)
Then go to the "list admin" pages - "Edit List Config" - " Sending/Reception".
Change the "Who can send" option to "Newsletter".
Set the "Reply-To" options appropriately. (see next question)

I don't want replies to messages to go back to the whole list!

By default Sympa will send replies back to the entire list. If you don't want that you need to change the "Reply address" section.

The "value" pull down menu can be set to the following settings:

• All - Sends replies to the sender and the entire list. (default)
• List - Sends replies to the entire list.
• Sender - Sends replies to the address in the From: header.
• Other_email - Sends replies to the address entered in the "other email address" field. (below the pulldown menu)

By setting the "respect of existing header field" to "forced" you can force your settings to override any settings that the sender set in the original message.

I don't want my email address to show up in the messages I am sending!

You can "hide" the actual sender by entering another email address in the "Anonymous Sender" field. All messages from the list will then appear to be from that email address.

This is best used on announcement lists that you want to come from an administrative alias rather than an individual.

I have a very large list of email addresses. How do I add them all as subscribers?

If the email addresses are in the correct format you can just copy and paste the entire list into the "Multiple Add" text box. (Click the "Multiple Add" button on the subscribers page to get to the text box)

The correct format is either a simple list of email addresses (user@domain) or a list of addresses with full names (user@domain, Full Name).

If the list is very large it can take a while to process. If it takes more than 5 minutes you will get a "Server Error" from the web server. Don't Panic! The list will still be processed. The error is from the web server not Sympa. You may check on the progress of the load by looking at the number of subscribers to the list.

I'm setting up a temporary list to send one announcement. I don't want the subscribers to get the "welcome" message to the list. How do I prevent that?

Just check the "Don't Send Notification" checkbox next to the "Add" button when you add the users.

How do I add another owner or moderator to my list?

First go to the "List Administration Panel" web page for your list. Then click on "Edit List Config" and finally, click on "List Definition". There you will find all the owners and moderators. There should be a blank form at the end of each list. Just fill in the "email address" field and optionally the "name" field. Then press the "Update" button at the very bottom of the page. Repeat these steps to add additional owners or moderators.

Note: If the new owner or moderator has a Case Network account then all you need to add is the user ID (ie. abc3) in the "email address" field. The full name and email address will be filled in for you.

Why would I add another owner or moderator to my list?

Because people leave. If the owner of a list leaves the University and they lose their account access, or if they just quit managing the list, then the list becomes unmanagable. If you have two owners then when one leaves the other can remove the old owner and add a new one.

How do I delete old mail archives?

1. Log into the Sympa server.
2. Go to the Admin Page of the list you want to update.
   • Use the Admin button when selecting the list
   • or the List Admin button from the list's main page.
3. Select the Manage Archives tab.
4. Select which month (or months) you want to delete.
   • Archives are stored by month.
   • Shift click to select a range of months.
5. Click Delete Selected Month(s)
   • The user will be asked if they want to save the data in a Zip file on their hard drive before it is deleted.

Note: If you would like to turn off the archiving completely, send email to help@case.edu.

If there are other questions that you think we should add please let us know. help@case.edu