List Protection Settings
To access the list protection settings for a subscriber list, open the node of the parent dataset of the desired list in the
Subscriber Datasets
subtree, to show its subnodes.
- For a standard dataset (in subscriber area mode), proceed to open the Lists subnode, to show the subtree with all the lists in the dataset. Select the desired subscriber list node in this subtree.
- For a "single list mode" dataset, there is no such "Lists" subnode. Simply select the node for the single list from the subnodes of the dataset node.
This screen shows the list protection settings of the selected list, in the selected dataset.
LISTSERV Maestro List Protection
The purpose of the list protection feature is, to avoid a situation where a subscriber has unsubscribed from a list, but the list owner then accidentally adds the same email address back to the list without the subscriber's knowledge or consent. This should usually be avoided because it can give the list a bad reputation (and may even be illegal in certain countries or states).
If list protection is enabled, and once a subscriber has unsubscribed himself from a list, then there are the following restrictions on how the same email address can be added back to the list:
- Standard Subscribe: The subscriber can still subscribe his own email
address again, with the usual subscribe feature of the list. So a normal subscribe is not affected by the
list protected at all.
- Add Single Subscriber: If the list owner tries to re-add the unsubscribed
address with the Add Single Subscriber option, then he will see a warning
about the address' protected status, and is asked to confirm that he really wants to re-add the address
to the list.
- Subscriber Import: If the list owner imports subscribers into the list,
either via an upload or by reading from a database or LDAP directory, then if this unsubscribed address appears in the
imported data, it will be skipped and will not be added to the list.
This "protects" the list against the situation, where an unsubscribed address is accidentally imported back into the list. Such imports are the most common cause how addresses that have already been unsubscribed can reappear on a list. For example the list owner may have a local file with all subscribers that he used initially to seed his list. Over time, he adds some more entries to this file and therefore decides, to re-upload the file into the list. Only he forgets that in the meantime, some of the initial subscribers may already have unsubscribed from the list. Of course these unsubscribed addresses are however still listed in the local file. So if the file is now imported, these addresses are again added to the list. The list protection feature guards against such a mistake, as it automatically skips those addresses in the uploaded file.