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FLORA Helpdesk: Questions for new list managers

Have you read and understand the FLORA.org terms and conditions?

As a list manager you will be the one that would be asked questions if any arise, and who will need to somehow convey to your list members any part of these conditions that affect them. If you are uncertain about these terms or why they matter, please ask in the FLORA.org helpdesk.

What will the primary name of the list be?

This is the basis of the email address that people send email to (EG: flora-admin-help@flora.org ) as well as the list name people subscribe to (EG: "subscribe flora-admin-help ). It needs to be unique across all FLORA providers so should somehow signify something unique about your group. Since people may have to type it in (or read it over the phone) it should be as small and as recognizable as possible.

We configure 3 versions of the list, allowing you to control in your configuration files and advertisements how you wish to use them.

• listname : main list where members receive an email with each list submission.
• listname-digest : digested version where a number of submissions are sent in a single email. This is used for people who wish to receive fewer emails from the list.
• listname-nomail : this is used in conjunction with restrict_post to allow people to add aliases that they wish to contribute messages with, but not receive an additional copy of the submissions.

Who will be the owner of the list?

This is the person receiving emails sent to owner-listname@flora.org , who receives subscribe/unsubscribe requests if there are problems, and any bounces from the list (IE: messages that could not be delivered for whatever reason). This person would have control over the list for things such as whether it is moderated or not, how people subscribe, and other such things (As documented on the FLORA Helpdesk: List managers page).

Do you wish your -digest list to be added to the DAILY (at 03:00 EST) batching?

You can set the digests to automatically generate with new submissions based on the age of the oldest message in the digest so far, based on the total size that a digest would be, or other criteria. As an alternative you can just have a new digest created DAILY (at 03:00 EST) in addition to, or instead of, these other criteria.

Will you be wanting a per-month file-archive of the list

These are files accessible via majordomo 'get' command, and contain the entire of all the messages posted that month.

Note: If you will have archives stored on FLORA.org, whether it be file based offered by Majordomo or web-based, you need to think about the copyright issues mentioned in the FLORA.org Terms and Conditions.

Will you be wanting a public Web-view of the list

This uses the new FORUMDB system imports messages into an SQL database and gives an interactive view of the articles. Please note that this feature is only available to groups that already have a FLORA.org website.

Majordomo has a 'config' and a 'newconfig' command which allows the list owner/manager to configure a wide variety of details about how a particular list will work. Some list managers need help in the form of a walk-through for the most important parts of the config file, others already know how to configure everything, and others may need help to set the config file (allowing them to only need to know how to subscribe/unsubscribe people to their list, and how to approve messages).

If you need help, you will need to ask in the flora-admin-help mailing list that is part of the FLORA.org helpdesk

The key areas of the config file for people to consider are:

• admin_passwd , approve_passwd : These are the passwords you need to use to administer the list. The 'default' value is "list-name.admin" and "list-name.pass"

• administrivia : if set to 'yes', then messages that look like subscribe/unsubscribe messages will be sent to you to approve. This cleans out of the list so many of the "Please unsubscribe me" types of messages

• description : This description is used by the 'list' command and is what people use to determine if they will subscribe to your list.

• moderate : this is a yes/no question where a yes means that any message not yet approved will simply be emailed to the list owner for approval.

• reply_to : Often this is set to go back to the submission address of the list itself, allowing people to just hit 'reply' to send a message to everyone. Some people dislike this behavior (it sometimes causes private messages to go public ;-) so you should check with your participants.

• restrict_post : this is used to restrict postings to only the email addresses listed in a list (or group of lists - see discussion of "-nomail" option below). If left blank, anyone can post. If set then postings from anyone not listed in one of the listed files go to the moderator for approval. Given SPAM and other problems, it is expected that lists will either use "restrict_post" or "moderate" , with open lists that allow anyone to post not being supported.

• subject_prefix : this is often used to add [listname] to the subject line so people can easily tell when skimming subject lines that a message came from your list.

• subscribe_policy : this indicates what method people need to go through to subscribe. It is extremely discouraged to use just 'open' or 'auto' because it will allow people to subscribe 'other people' to lists (allowing the list to be used to flood innocent peoples mailboxes). The two most popular formats are:
  • open+confirm - people ask to subscribe, are sent a 'confirmation' and are added once they reply to the confirmation.
  • closed - subscribe requests are sent to the owner to be approved.

Please read the FLORA.org Terms and Conditions before you submit information to FLORA.org
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