How do I administer a Mailman list?

Mailman Only These instructions are only for Mailman lists. If your list is a group or Moira list, please see "How do I administer an Athena (Moira) list or group?"

All Mailman administration is done using your web browser, with the exception of deleting the mailman list. To have a mailman list deleted, please email the accounts team at accounts@mit.edu. To administer your list, visit this URL:

https://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/admin/listname

replacing "listname" with the name of your mailman list.

For example, if your mailman list is mylist@mit.edu, you would go to

https://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/admin/mylist

NOTE: If you make a typo in the list name, your web browser may appear to hang. This is because the mailman system cannot find your list, and instead is trying to display the name of every single mailman list at MIT so that you can locate yours. This is an unfortunate bug, and the best thing to do is to close your browser and try again.

The web page will prompt you for your list administrator password. This is NOT your MIT kerberos password, it is a separate password to administer this mailing list.

If you have forgotten your list administrator password, you use your certificates to access the list. To do this, go to your browser's address bar, and add ":444" after "mailman.mit.edu". Continuing from the previous example, the URL should look like:

https://mailman.mit.edu:444/mailman/admin/mylist

That will allow you to access your list without your administrator password.

Once you have reached the "list administration" web page, you will be able to administer your list. Mailman has a number of complicated options, but the most common tasks are adding or deleting members, which is accomplished via the "Membership Management" link, approving or rejecting posts to the list, if your list is moderated, which is accomplished via the "Tend to pending moderator requests" link.

What do all the options mean? Membership management