LISTSERV Maestro 8.1-4 Help

Subscriber List Definition

The Subscriber List wizard lets you define the settings of a subscriber list or edit an existing list.

Note: A subscriber list is only fully editable while it is "empty", meaning that there are no subscribers on the list. For a non-empty list, only certain settings are editable.

The wizard has eight pages:

General, Profile Fields, Profile Field Details, List Type, List Options, Posting Restrictions, Topics, and Summary

The top row of the wizard displays links to these pages. The page that is currently open is marked with a highlighted background color. Depending on the choices made on some of the wizard pages, other pages may become disabled or may be shown in different versions. If a wizard page is disabled, then it means that this page is not necessary with the current choices and can safely be ignored.

The LISTSERV Maestro admin may configure a user account or group so that it is only allowed to create standard announcement subscriber lists, but not advanced subscriber lists. If this is the case, then the wizard has only four pages and the "List Type", "List Options", "Posting Restrictions" and "Topics" pages are not shown.

List Type Page: Subscriber List Type And Advanced Configuration

Note: This screen is not visible at all if the LISTSERV Maestro administrator has disabled advanced subscriber lists for the account or group.

The screen defines the general type of subscriber list. This screen has two different tabs as described below:

• Type Definition
• Advanced Configuration

Type Definition

Defines the type of the list. You have the choice between the following options:

• Standard Announcement List: A standard announcement list allows for message posting via LISTSERV Maestro, it is not possible to post to this list via email. Messages sent to the list are distributed to list subscribers (to all of them or a subset, depending on the recipients definition of the associated mail job). Replies are not distributed back to the list (as some of the list types below would support) but are sent to the address configured in the sender definition of the associated mail job.

• Announcement List with Advanced Options: An advanced announcement list is intended for one-way communication where a group of editors is allowed to post messages via email to the list subscribers. The account or group owning the list may also use the LISTSERV Maestro user interface to post messages to the list. Subscriber replies are not distributed to the list but are instead sent to specific addresses (to be configured on the Reply Behavior tab of the List Options page).

  The group of editors consists either of the "allowed sender" addresses, or if none are specified of the list administrator addresses.

• Unmoderated Discussion List: An unmoderated discussion list is intended for two-way communication among list subscribers without moderator intervention. The list can be defined so that everyone can post to it, or so that only list subscribers can post. In the latter case, a group of editors can optionally be allowed to post to the list via email without being subscribed.

• Moderated Discussion List: A moderated discussion list is intended for two-way communication among list subscribers with the additional requirement that each message is reviewed by a member of the moderator group before it is distributed to the list. The list is defined so that everyone can post to it, but each posting must first be approved by a moderator. Optionally, an additional list of unmoderated senders can be defined that are allowed to post to the list without approval by a moderator.

• User-Defined List: Allows you to define your own list type. This is an advanced feature that requires knowledge of LISTSERV list headers and list header keywords and is therefore most suited for experienced LISTSERV users.

  The behavior of a list of the user-defined type depends entirely on the value that you supply for the Send keyword, while the three predefined types (see above) have predefined values for the Send keyword, for the user-defined type this keyword is free for you to define. Click on the Edit link to define it.

If you want to post a message to the advanced subscriber list with the Send to a List or Dataset in the Subscriber Warehouse recipients type and with the Classic LISTSERV List Posting option, then you will need to make sure to use the correct sender address for the mail job so that the posting is actually accepted by the list. LISTSERV Maestro therefore verifies the sender address of the mail job during the "Delivery Test" step, to make sure that the final posting (when the job is authorized) will not be rejected by the LISTSERV list. LISTSERV Maestro verifies the sender address according to the following rules:

• For announcement lists: If any Allowed Sender Addresses are specified on the Allowed Sender Addresses tab of the Posting Restrictions screen, then the sender address of the job must be one of these addresses.
  If no specific "Allowed Sender Addresses" have been supplied, then the sender address of the job must instead be one of the addresses listed as the List Administrator Addresses on the General Options tab of the List Options screen.
   
• For unmoderated discussion lists: If the list is defined so that everyone can post, you can use any sender address for the mail job.
  If the list is defined so that only subscribers and editors can post, the sender address of the mail job must be one of the addresses listed as the Allowed Sender Addresses on the Allowed Sender Addresses tab of the Posting Restrictions screen.
   
• For moderated discussion lists: The sender address must be one of the addresses listed either as the Moderator Addresses or the Unmoderated Senders on the List Moderation tab of the Posting Restrictions screen.
   
• For user-defined lists: LISTSERV Maestro will not perform any verification of the sender address of the mail job. You must make sure yourself that the address that you specify in the sender information will actually be accepted by your list (i.e. that this address is allowed to post to the list). If you happen to specify a sender address that is not allowed to post to the list, then the job will still be delivered successfully in LISTSERV Maestro (i.e. your posting is sent to the list successfully), but then your list posting will be rejected by the list itself (and returned to the sender address). The sender address that you need to use in the mail job depends on the user-defined settings of the list.

Advanced Configuration

Note: The advanced configuration is only available for advanced subscriber lists, not for standard announcement lists.

View and edit the actual LISTSERV list header keywords that define the behavior of the Advanced Subscriber List.

Note: This is an advanced feature that requires knowledge of and experience with LISTSERV list headers and list header keywords and should therefore only be used by experienced LISTSERV list administrators. For most standard list purposes, there is no need to edit the list header keywords on this tab directly, but you can instead use the controls that are provided on the following wizard pages (List Options, Posting Restrictions, and Topics).

The tab shows a tree with all available list header keywords, separated into seven groups (see the list of groups and keywords below). Click on the icon to open a group or the icon to close a group.

The keywords themselves are displayed in different styles, depending on their current configuration:

• icon and black text: This keywords has been configured via one of the special controls on the following wizard pages (List Options, Posting Restrictions, or Topics) and will appear in the list header with the displayed value.
   
• icon and bold black text: This keyword has been configured with a manually supplied value via the Edit link here on the Advanced Configuration tab. It will appear in the list header with the displayed value (or will be omitted from the list header, if applicable).
   
• icon and grey text: This keyword is currently not configured and will not appear in the list header.
   
• icon and bold red text: This keyword is currently not configured but must be configured before the wizard can be finished.
   
• icon and bold black text: This keyword has been configured with a manually supplied value via the Edit link here on the Advanced Configuration tab and was included in the list header with the displayed value (or was omitted from the list header, if applicable).
  However, when the list header was transferred to LISTSERV, LISTSERV reported an error in the value of this keyword. To see the original LISTSERV error message for this keyword, select the keyword in the tree and click the Edit link.

To view the actual textual list header that is the result of the keyword input here in the keyword tree and in the user interface controls on the following wizard pages, and which thus defines this Advanced Subscriber List, click on the View Configuration as Plaintext link at the bottom left of the tree.

To copy the settings defined on the List Type, the List Options and the Posting Restrictions page, click on the Copy Configuration From Other List link at the bottom right of the tree. (This link is only available if there is another list to copy settings from.)

To edit the value of a given keyword, select the keyword in the tree and click on the Edit link at the top right corner of the tree. Depending on the selected keyword, there are three possible edit situations:

• Editing via wizard controls only: For keywords of this type, all possible values that the keywords can have can be configured via the user interface controls that the wizard offers on the following wizard pages. Therefore, there is no need to be able to input a keyword value manually. If you click the Edit link for such a keyword, then a message box will inform you that instead of editing the keyword value manually, please use the provided user interface controls on the specified wizard page.
   
• Editing via wizard controls or manual input: For keywords of this type, user interface controls exist on the following wizard pages. However, those controls do not allow you to input the full range of possible values for this keyword (but only the most common values). Therefore, you have the choice of either using the user interface controls in the wizard or to supply a specific value for the keyword manually. If you choose to supply a value manually here in the keywords tree, then the corresponding user interface control on one of the following wizard pages will no longer be available. Instead a message will be displayed that informs you that a custom value has been supplied for the corresponding keyword in the keywords tree. To make the user interface controls available again, go back to the keywords tree and remove the manually supplied value. If you click the Edit link for such a keyword, an input dialog will allow you to choose between using the user interface control in the wizard (this also includes an information about where to find the corresponding user interface control) or to supply your own customized value.
   
• Editing via manual input only: For keywords of this type, there exists no dedicated user interface control on any of the following wizard pages. Therefore, the only way of changing these keywords is by supplying a customized value for the keyword manually, here in the keywords tree. Keywords of this type are keywords for very specific and advanced LISTSERV list features, which are seldomly used. If you click the Edit link for such a keyword, an input dialog will allow you to supply the value for the keyword.

The following list header keywords are available in the keyword tree (note that some obsolete keywords are not supported):

• Access Control Keywords
  • Attachments
  • Filter
  • Review
  • Send
• Distribution Keywords
  • Ack
  • Daily-Threshold
  • Digest
  • Mail-Via
  • Newsgroups
  • Prime
  • Reply-To
  • Sender
  • Sub-lists
  • Topics
• Error Handling Keywords
  • Auto-Delete
  • Errors-To
  • Loopcheck
• Maintenance / Moderation Keywords
  • Configuration-Owner
  • Editor
  • Editor-Header
  • Moderator
  • New-List
  • Notebook
  • Notify
  • Owner
  • Peers
  • Renewal
  • Sizelim
  • Subject-Tag
  • X-Tags
• Security Keywords
  • Change-Log
  • Confidential
  • Exit
  • Local
  • Service
  • Validate
• Subscription Keywords
  • Confirm-Delay
  • Default-Options
  • Default-Topics
• Other Keywords
  • Categories
  • Language
  • Limits
  • Mail-Merge
  • Misc-Options
  • Translate