Managing E-lists at Cornell

List Configuration (Lyris)

Lyris ListManager provides tools for customizing the way your list behaves. This page describes some of the most commonly used options.

Member Configuration

Who can join?

1. Log in to the Lyris administrator web interface (need help logging in?)
2. Click on the blue Utilities tab
3. Click on List Settings
4. Click on New Subscriber Policy
5. Click on the gray Security tab
6. Use the Security dropdown to select the option you want:

• open - anyone can join (no approval needed)
  use this setting if you don't need or want to restrict who can join
  (for example, a list about road closings at Cornell, or a general discussion of woodpeckers)
  
  
• private - administrator must approve new members
  use this setting if you want to review requests to join
  (for example, a list for administrative aides, or grad students, or volunteers at commencement)
  If you choose this option, you will need to review and approve (or delete) all membership requests
  
  
• closed - only an administrator can add new members
  use this to restrict membership to only those people added by a list administrator
  (for example, a list for staff in a particular department, or students taking a particular class)
  If you choose this option, members who try to join will get an automated message saying that they can't join; you will not be notified of their request

Do new members need to confirm their wish to join the list?

1. Log in to the Lyris administrator web interface (need help logging in?)
2. Click on the blue Utilities tab
3. Click on List Settings
4. Click on New Subscriber Policy
5. Click on the gray Confirmation tab
6. Next to Confirm subscribes select yes or no

• yes - all new members (whether a list administrator adds them or they send the join command) will receive a confirmation e-mail message. They must respond (by clicking on a link in that message) before their membership will be activated. We recommend this setting.
• no - new members become active as soon as they send the join command or a list administrator adds them

Do members need to confirm an "leave" request?

1. Log in to the Lyris administrator web interface (need help logging in?)
2. Click on the blue Utilities tab
3. Click on List Settings
4. Click on New Subscriber Policy
5. Click on the gray Confirmation tab
6. Use the Confirm unsubscribes dropdown to select the option you want:

• Never ask for confirmation when a member unsubscribes by email - all leave commands from members will be processed immediately
• Require confirmation for all email unsubscriptions - Lyris will send a confirmation message when it receives an leave request from a member. The member must respond by clicking on a link in that message. We recommend this setting.

Who can see the list of all members for a particular e-list?

1. Log in to the Lyris administrator web interface (need help logging in?)
2. Click on the blue Utilities tab
3. Click on List Settings
4. Click on Discussion Group Features
5. Click on the Security
6. Use the Security of member list dropdown to select the option you want:

• Only allow the list administrator to obtain the member listing - use this setting to prevent everyone (except the list administrators) from receiving a list of all members
• Allow only members to obtain the member listing - use this setting to allow anyone who is a member of the list to see a a list of all members
• Allow anyone to obtain the member listing - we really really recommend that you do not choose this setting, which allows anyone to see a list of all members. This is a convenient way for spammers to acquire a pile of e-mail addresses, which is a bad thing.

Message Configuration

Who can post messages?

Here you have three options:

• Only list administrators can post - this setting is useful for announcement lists, where the only traffic is information being sent to list members
• Members can post - this setting is useful for discussion lists, where information flows between and among members. Restricing posting to members helps prevent spam and other inappropriate posts
• Anyone can post - this is almost never a good idea, especially if administrators are not moderating posts. Anyone who knows the address of the list can send a message to the list. Spam, spam, spam, spam...

Please note that with any of these settings, the list can be configured with or without administrator review of each post.

• Posting by Administrators only

1. Log in to the Lyris administrator web interface (need help logging in?)
2. Click on the blue Utilities tab
3. Click on List Settings
4. Click on Email Submitted Content
5. Click on the gray Security tab
6. Next to Only admins can send select yes or no

• yes - only posts from list administrators will be accepted. Useful for announcement lists
• no - posts are not restricted to administrators. A separate setting determines whether only members can post or whether anyone can (keep reading; it's the very next thing on this page)

• Posting not restricted to Administrators
  (if the previous setting was used to restrict posting to administrators only, this setting will have no effect)

1. Log in to the Lyris administrator web interface (need help logging in?)
2. Click on the blue Utilities tab
3. Click on List Settings
4. Click on Discusssion Group Features
5. Click on Security
6. Next to Reject posts from non-members select yes or no

• yes - only posts from list members will be accepted. Useful for discussion lists. Note: you may still set the list to require administrator review of each post
• no - anyone who knows the address of the list can send a message to the list. Very often this is a bad setting. Note: you may still set the list to require administrator review of each post

 

Do messages need approval before they are posted to the list?

1. Log in to the Lyris administrator web interface (need help logging in?)
2. Click on the blue Utilities tab
3. Click on List Settings
4. Click on Email Submitted Content
5. Click on the gray Approval tab
   
   
6. Use the Is list moderated drop-down to select the option you want:

• not moderated - messages never need approval - all messages (from qualified posters) are posted directly to the list
• moderated - all messages must be approved - all messages (from qualified posters) are held until an administrator reviews them. The administrator can approve the message as is, edit it, or reject it
• number moderated - members have their first few messages approved - you specify how many messages need to be moderated for new members.

7. The Approve # for number moderated drop-down list only applies if you selected number moderated in step 6. This is where you indicate how many messages a new member must have moderated (either approved or rejected) before their postings will be sent to the list without moderation.
8. The drop-down list next to Automatically release unmoderated messages specifies what happens if a messages sits waiting for moderation for a period of days without being approved or rejected. Give some thought to this setting! If you want to be very careful with what gets posted to your list, select Approval is always required.
9. The drop-down list next to Automatically release messages at only applies if you selected automatic release of messages in step 8. It specifies the time of day that messages which have waited pending review (for the specified number of days) are released to the list.
10. Click save.

Setting the "Reply-to" address

1. Log in to the Lyris administrator web interface (need help logging in?)
2. Click on the blue Utilities tab
3. Click on List Settings
4. Click on Email Submitted Content
5. Click on the gray Header Rewrites tab
6. You can choose to have replies go to the entire list, to the sender, or to an address you specify.

To make the replies go to:	Do this:
the list (so that all list members will see the reply)	make sure the Reply To box is empty
the sender of the message being replied to	type   author in the Reply To box
a particular address (other than the list or the sender)	type the e-mail address in the Reply To box

7. Click save

Popular Topics

Members

Who can join?

New members must confirm?

Departing members must confirm?

Who can see list of members?

Messages

Who can post?

Do messages need approval before they are posted to the list?

Setting the "Reply-to" address