Listserv Management at TAMU

Introduction

Listserv is a software package designed to create, maintain, and use email mailing lists. Just like an address book group, Listserv allows one to email a large number of individuals without manually entering every address for each email. At TAMU, Listserv is used to maximize efficiency of communication between students in a class, members of an organization, or a group of individuals. This set of documentation is designed to aid Listserv owners and managers in maintaining an efficient and organized Listserv mailing list.
   

Logging into the Listserv management webpage

A useful Listserv management tool is located at http://listserv.tamu.edu. From this website, Listserv owners can perform most Listserv management functions and it will be the primary focus of this tutorial. The first step to gain access to this site is to establish a Listserv password. This password is associated with your email address; Listserv only recognizes email addresses and will not identify one person by two different addresses. For this reason, Listserv lists to which you may be subscribed as one email address will not appear in the set of Listserv lists available to you if you log into this website using a different email address.
  

Establishing a Listserv password

1. To establish a Listserv password, visit the website mentioned above.
     
2. Click the Manage Lists button on the right-hand side of the page.
     
3. Click the text link that reads get a new LISTSERV password first.
    
4. Enter your email address and the password you would like to use. Click the Register button.
   
   NOTE: You should use the email address at which you receive your Listserv emails. As mentioned above, Listserv will only recognize email addresses and can only associate lists with listserv managers in this way.
      
5. You will receive an email confirmation shortly that will include a URL to a confirmation page. By visiting this link, you will activate your Listserv password and you will now be able to login to the Management Tools page.
      
6. Now that you have activated your Listserv password, you should be able to revisit the management page listed above and login, using your email address and password. 
      

Using the Listserv management webpage

1. Once you have successfully logged into the Listserv Management Webpage, you should see a sidebar. Select List Management [fig. 01]. 
   
   
   [fig. 01 – List management]
2. From the menu, select the list you would like to manage. All of the lists for which you are listed as an owner should be there [fig. 02]. 
   
   
   [fig. 02 – List configuration wizard]
    
   1. Templates: Clicking on the Customization button will give you the option to customize the color scheme and appearance of the list archives. Select Mail Templates to open a page from which you may customize the template messages sent to your list. Some of these might include: the welcome message template, which will be mailed to all new subscribers; the farewell message template, which will be mailed to all subscribers who have been removed from the list in a non-quiet manner by the list owner, or by using the SIGNOFF command; and other standard template messages.
      
      NOTE:  The Listserv server administrator may restrict certain templates from being edited by Listserv owners.
   2. Subscribers: Clicking on the Subscriber Management button will open a page from which you can manage your list's subscribers one at a time. The functions available include examining or deleting a subscription, adding a subscription (see Bulk Operations to add a large list of subscribers), and reviewing your list's subscriptions. To examine or delete a subscription, you will need first to search for the subscriber. The Listserv server will allow you to search for an e-mail address, given name, or by an inexact match to any of the above. To search for inexact matches, use the asterisk (*) character as a wildcard. For example, searching for "jo*" will return all subscribers whose name or e-mail address begins with "Jo", as in "Joe Smith" or "joan@yahoo.com".
       
   3. Bulk Op: Clicking on the Subscriber Management button will open a page from which you click on the Bulk op. tab in the command bar will open a page from which you may perform subscription operations in bulk. To perform these operations, you will need to have a text (.txt) file that contains a list of e-mail addresses, one per line. Optionally, you may also include full names separated from the e-mail address by a space or tab character. 
       
      1. First, click on the Browse button and select your input file.
      2. Select the action you want to server to take with this information. You can do one of four things:
          
         1. Add the e-mail addresses listed in the file to your list of subscribers, and remove no one. 
         2. Remove all current subscribers from your list, then add the e-mail address listed in the file (to remove all subscribers, simply select this option but do not load an input file). 
         3. Remove the e-mail addresses listed in the file from your current list of subscribers. 
         4. Remove the e-mail addresses listed in the file from all lists of which you are an owner.
      3. Click the Import button to complete the action.
          
   4. Command: Clicking on the Listserv Command button will open a page from which you may execute specific Listserv server commands directly. This functionality should be reserved for experienced Listserv owners, and in particular, those with experience communicating with the Listserv server via e-mail. For more information on the available Listserv commands, see the LSoft's Listserv Owner's documentation.
   5. Mail Merge: The Mail Merge option is not enabled at Texas A&M University. It requires an extensive database support structure which is not in place for listserv.tamu.edu.
       
3. Click on a management option from the command bar [fig. 03]. 
   
   
   [fig. 03 – Listserv command interface]
    
   1. Sample Commands: Clicking on one of the Listserv sample commands will issue direct commands to Listserv.
   2. Info About: Clicking on Info about will send information about the list to the email associated with the Listerv account. 
   3. List of Subscribers: Clicking on List of Subscribers will send a list of current subscribers to the email associated with the Listserv account.