Thank you for using mail-list.com as your mailing list server. Our goal is to provide the best, most reliable, and easiest to use mail list server on the planet. If you have any suggestions or comments, please do not hesitate to email or call.
This is an Announcement List, sometimes known as a Broadcast or One-Way List. The list owner of this list is your_email@address.com. In addition, you may specify other email addresses that can control this list. Together these addresses are known as list moderators, and all the list moderator email addresses have the same privileges and capabilities.
Only the list moderators are able to send a message to the subscribers. The list moderators can also add and remove subscribers, request various reports, and update the content and features of the mailing list via a web page interface.
The subscribers can get on and off the list, or change their email address without any intervention from the list moderators.
Table of Contents:
Public Addresses:
Subscriber On
Subscriber Off
Subscriber Change of Address
Secret Addresses:
List Administration
Basic Commands
Posting Messages
Changing Content or Features of Your Mailing List
Public addresses are email addresses that you can freely give out, and encourage people to use. Public addresses will help people quickly subscribe, unsubscribe, and change their email address.
In order to Subscribe, there are two steps called "double opt-in":
Nothing else needs to be typed in the email they send. If they do type anything, our computers ignore it.
Or they can sign up at your website, which then generates the email message for them.
2. They get back an email confirmation of their request to subscribe.
They hit "Reply", keeping the Subject line intact.
Or they may click on a URL in the message, which generates the
reply for them. When our computers receive this "Reply", their
address is added to your list, and your Welcome message is returned.
The confirmation email they receive will have a unique, random number in the Subject line. When our machine gets back the same random number, we know it was really them that sent the email back.
You can change the contents of the confirmation message, but not the Subject line.
Double opt-in is necessary to keep mail-list.com from being blacklisted by ISP's receiving our email. It eliminates the problem of pranksters and virus signing up other people to your list.
When a subscriber wants to Unsubscribe, they send an email to:
Any email sent here will remove the address that is sending the email, and return your Goodbye message.
To change their address, your subscriber will send an email message to
With the Subject line containing the old email address.
For example,
To: yourlist-change@mail-list.com
From: new@email_address.com
Subject: old@email_address.com
Or the subscriber can send in the change request from their old address and put their new email address in the Subject line. Either way accomplishes the same thing. In other words, whichever address they send From, they need to put the other address in the Subject line.
Upon receipt of this request, our machine will send back a confirmation request. They will need to simply Reply to that email. Again, this is to keep pranksters from causing problems for your subscribers.
When we get back their confirmation approval, our computers will compare the two addresses, removing the address currently on your list, and replace it with the new address. An email will then be sent back to them listing the actions taken.
Secret addresses should only be known by the list owner and any additional moderators that they have designated. Security is difficult in email, and people could learn how to control your list with the secret addresses and corresponding passwords. So take appropriate precautions, and remember that you can change your password at any time by sending email or giving us a call at 1-713-527-9393.
yourlist-moderator@mail-list.com
The List Administration address allows you to manage the list of subscribers and request reports by sending in email messages to this address, with the proper commands placed in the body of the email.
When you send in your list administration commands, your email must be sent From one of these address(es):
List Administration requires a password placed in the Subject line, for your list it is:
open_sesame
Please copy and paste that password into your email to avoid typos.
In summary, your email headers should look like this:
To: yourlist-moderator@mail-list.com From: your_email@address.com Subject: open_sesame
You will place the commands in the body of the email. Put only one command per line.
You may put as many commands as you want into the body of the email. Each command will be executed separately.
The complete list of commands available is listed in a separate document called "Index of Announcement List Commands".
Some commands require an email address to work upon. Some commands do not need an email address. The Joe and Sally addresses we use are examples only, and not part of the command.
--
Subscribe an address
subscribe joe@domain.com
This starts the subscription process. A confirmation email will then be sent to them. When they hit Reply to the confirmation message, their address will be added to your list and your Welcome message is sent to them.
--
Unsubscribe an address
unsubscribe sally@domain.com
The goodbye message is sent and the address is removed from your list.
--
Check if a subscriber is on your list
checklist mike@domain.com
An email will be returned showing the status of that particular email address.
--
List all the subscribers
showlist
--
Show the number of subscribers on your list
showcount
--
In summary, if you were doing several commands in one email, it would
look like this:
To: yourlist-moderator@mail-list.com
From: your_email@address.com
Subject: open_sesame
subscribe joe@domain.com
unsubscribe sally@domain.com
checklist mike@domain.com
showlist
showcount
Posting Messages:
To send a message to everybody on your mailing list, follow these instructions.
This address is called your Main Address. While not exactly a secret, there is no need to give this address to the public. Should a subscriber send a message to this address, they will get back your help message.
This is the Posting Message address that actually sends your message to your list. You must put this secret address in the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) of your email, and the Main Address in the TO line.
Your email headers will look like this:
From: your_email@address.com
To: yourlist@mail-list.com
Subject: whatever you want to put here is fine (ex: title of your newsletter)
Cc:
Bcc: secret_address@mail-list.com
Put your newsletter, message, etc., into the body of the email (now's the time to proofread!). When you hit "Send", one copy of the message will go to each email address on your list. Your subscriber will see their email address in the To: header line and also at the very bottom of your message. They will not see anybody else's email address.
---
For AOL Users: If you are using AOL, put the Posting Messages address
in the "Copy To" field, surrounded by parenthesis:
Copy To: (secret_address@mail-list.com)
When you Post a Message, your message must come from one of these email address(es):
or else it will be rejected. No other addresses will be allowed to send messages to your mailing list.
You will want to take special care in the formatting of your message, so that the message is easy to read on all types of computers. Your message is sent out exactly as received. One way to format your message, is to send it to the auto-responder at:
Any message sent to format@mail-list.com will be returned with all illegal characters converted, and lines will be hard wrapped at 70 characters. You should then proofread this message (it does not correct spelling!) You can then cut and paste it for posting a message to your list.
Changing Content or Features of Your Mailing List
You use your web browser to make changes to your Welcome message, Goodbye message, add or remove moderator email addresses, etc.
Visit http://db.mail-list.com/list_search.html at any time, and make changes to your mailing list. You will need to tell the system your list name and password.
List Name: yourlist
Password: open_sesame
After you have made the changes, our computer will send a confirmation email to the list moderators. This is to help insure that it's really You who requested the changes. After you confirm the request (by hitting "Reply" to the email), the listmaster (that's us) will migrate your changes into production for them to take effect. We will email you when that is done. We strive to provide 2 hour turnaround on changes during daylight hours (Texas Time) Monday through Friday.
This Owner's Manual provides all the basic commands needed to operate your list. In addition, there is an Advanced Owner's Manual, and a Really Advanced Owner's Manual which describes optional commands and procedures.
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