I maintained several email lists using Macjordomo, a freeware email list server from Leuca Software. The purpose of this page is to explain how Macjordomo works and how you can add, delete, or change your subscription – although the examples provided in this article are no longer in use. (Take that, spammers!)
1. How does an email list work?
Anyone who has access to internet email may subscribe by using the administrative address listserver@lowendmac.com with the appropriate command. These are detailed below. Subscribers will receive a copy of every message sent to the posting address. If you wish to respond, post, or otherwise have your words sent to everyone on the list, send email, either by replying or sending a new message, to the posting address.
- The list management program is set up so selecting “Reply” in your email client will send a message to the entire list. If you wish to respond individually to the sender of the message, be sure to address your message accordingly. There should be no need to copy messages to both the author and the list.
2. How do I subscribe to a list?
Send email to the administrative address listserver@lowendmac.com.
The subject line should be ignored (leave it blank if your email client permits), but the text of the message should read:
- subscribe ListName YourName
Substituting that actual name of the email list for ListName and your name for YourName. (Including your name is strictly optional.) Your name may include spaced and punctuation.
List names cannot include spaces. They are are:
(removed)
There are alternate ways to subscribe to these lists in digest and individual message mode. These are covered on the FAQs for each individual list.
3. I subscribed, but I get no messages. What’s up?
It is possible to successfully subscribe with an incorrect email address. I check all bounced messages to determine why they bounced. If the address is invalid, I delete it from the subscriber list. If the problem is temporary, like a full mailbox, I’ll keep the address on the list.
Of course, since there’s a problem with the email address, there’s no way I can contact you to tell you of the problem. :-(
On top of that, we take a hard line against spam. To prevent spam, certain domains are blocked at the mail server.
4. How do I set digest mode?
All the lists I manage default to individual message mode. If this keeps you too busy, all lists have a digest mode.
Digest mode lets you read several messages in a single email, which may be sent once per day or as it reaches a predetermined size. This varies by list.
To switch from individual messages to the daily digest, send email to the administrative address listserver@lowendmac.com. Your message should read:
- set ListName digest
Be sure to substitute the name of the list for ListName as specified under point 2.
There is an easier way to switch to digest mode, but it is specific to each list. This information is in the footer of each message and in the FAQ for each list.
5. How do I turn off digest mode?
To switch back to individual messages, send email to the administrative address listserver@lowendmac.com. Your message should read:
- set ListName mail
Be sure to substitute the name of the list for ListName as specified under point 2.
There is an easier way to switch to message mode, but it is specific to each list. This information is in the footer of each digest and in the FAQ for each list.
6. How can I remove my name from the list?
Send email to listserver@lowendmac.com with the following text in the body of the message:
- unsubscribe ListName
Be sure to substitute the name of the list for ListName as specified under point 2.
There is an easier way to unsubscribe, but it is specific to each list. This information is in the footer of each message and in the FAQ for each list.
7. Who is on the list?
That would be telling. ;-)
Macjordomo has a command which allows you to receive a list of current subscribers. Because the list software requires an e-mail address but not a name, this information may be incomplete. The review command is:
- review ListName
In this day of junk email (aka spam), I have disabled the review command on all my lists. To contact subscribers, post to the list.
8. What other commands are available?
The help command will send you a detailed list of all the commands available through Macjordomo, including info, index, search, get, and set. Many of these commands will only work with digests. Some of these commands have also been disabled on some lists.
To obtain help, send the following to the administrative address listserver@lowendmac.com:
- help
9. How do I send a message to the list?
To email the list, be sure to send the message to its posting address. Following are the posting addresses for the lists I maintain. Incoming messages are automatically filtered for spam, which may prevent posting or even subscribing from certain domains known to relay junk email.
(removed)
To prevent the lists from being spammed, all my lists are closed so only subscribers may post.
Keywords: #macjordomo
Short link: http://goo.gl/tIYjXY
