Getting Started with Web-Based LISTSERV
Participation in LISTSERV discussion groups, as well as management of these
discussion groups, has made its way to the World Wide Web. As an enhancement
(not a replacement) to the traditional e-mail communication with LISTSERV, you
can now join or leave a list, request a new list, and manage lists you own
at
http://www.listserv.uga.edu.
Understanding the LISTSERV Password
On the UGA LISTSERV website, there is an item called "Registering Your
LISTSERV Password." As either a list subscriber or a list owner, you
should go ahead and register a LISTSERV password before using the site.
This password is associated with your e-mail address and can (and probably
should be) different from the password you use to read your mail.
As a subscriber, you will be asked for this password whenever you wish to
work with private lists that you are subscribed to. This includes browsing,
searching, and changing subscription options.
As a list owner, you will be asked for this password whenever you wish to
work with lists that you own. This includes adding and deleting subscribers,
or changing the list configuration.
Please keep the following in mind regarding LISTSERV passwords:
-
As a list subscriber, the e-mail address associated with your password
must correspond to the e-mail address you used to subscribe to the list
if you wish to manage your subscription through the WWW interface.
If you are subscribed with different e-mail addresses, you will have
to have multiple LISTSERV passwords to work with the lists you are
subscribed to.
-
As a list owner, the e-mail address associated with your password must
correspond to the e-mail you used as the list owner if you wish to
manage a list through the WWW interface. If you own multiple lists with
different owner e-mail addresses, you will need multiple LISTSERV
passwords.
-
You will probably find it convenient to have LISTSERV store your
password in a cookie, unless you often need to switch e-mail addresses
or share your computer with others.
List Archives and the Web
If you select "Browse, Subscribe, Post, Search ..." on the
Listserv home page, you'll see a limited selection of lists to
choose from. There are several reasons for this:
- Existing list archives are not automatically
web-enabled,
and only archives with web access are shown.
Existing lists are automatically enabled for web
administration, but must be specifically enabled for archive
access by the Listserv administrator.
- We haven't enabled existing archived lists
(those created before March 1, 2000)
because
- The list owners may not want web archives
for
specific lists
- The list owners should consider whether the
list's settings provide the desired level of
access
(see below) before enabling web archives.
- Since March 1, 2000,
when new lists are created, the request form will
allow the owner to request web archives and set access
levels.
- You can request web-enabled archives for an existing
list
here
- Confidential lists are not listed
Many UGA lists are 'Confidential': that is, the list
name is not published in search lists. The archives can
still be accessed (assuming they are web-enabled and you're
authorized to access them), but you must know the list name,
and type it into the "List Name" box on the left side of
the page.
List owners should consider both the Confidential (whether the
name is published) and access-level (whether the general public
or just subscribers can access) settings when web-enabling list archives.
Archive Access Levels:
The access-level settings determine who can access (browse or search) the
content of the list archives. It is not
tied to the 'Confidential' setting, which
just governs whether the existence of the list is
published. It is also not the same thing as posting
privileges, which may be owner-only, subscriber-only,
or public.
By default, the access level is Private, which means
subscribers only. This makes sense in most cases, but
can be changed if desired by coding the access level in
the Notebook= header.
For example, if the archives should be available
to owners only, the applicable header would be:
* Notebook= Yes,/home/listname,Monthly,Owner
See the
List Owner's Manual for more variations on access levels.
Web-based List Administration
LISTSERV keeps two types of information related to each list:
- subscriber information: the email address, name, and subscription
options (for example, mail or digest) for each subscriber
- list settings (also called 'list headers' or 'keywords'): all other
information about the list, such as the owners, who can post, etc.,
are stored here.
The two types of data are managed differently on the web, just as they
are via email.
Subscriber Information:
As a subscriber, you can join or leave a list, and find out or change
your subscription options. You will find these features
on the list's initial page, once you have selected the list
in "Browse, Subscribe, Post, Search ...".
As a list owner, you can also view and update this information for
your subscribers. Select the "Manage/Manage Subscribers" feature either on
Listserv's home page, or
on the list's initial page, once you have selected the list
in "Browse, Subscribe, Post, Search ...".
List Settings:
As a list owner, from the list's management page, you can
update any of your list headers using the "Edit List Configuration"
feature. Yes, you can change the owners of your list
yourself! Just do it very carefully. A simple typo
can leave your list without a valid owner, and syntax errors can
do even worse damage, such as wiping out subsequent header lines.
It is a very good idea to do a REVIEW of your list via email
before making any changes in the headers: then you will be sure
of having a current working copy of your list as backup if problems
occur.
Consult
LISTSERV List Keyword Reference
for details on keyword syntax and values.
You'll see some lines in your list headers that are not
documented, such as 'Created' and 'List_Affiliation' or 'Sponsor'.
These are local administration settings: they're treated as
comments by Listserv, since they do not contain an '=' sign.
You can add your own comments, but please do not remove these.
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