OVERVIEW
Target audience: McGill LISTSERV subscribers (members)
McGill's LISTSERV is an email distribution service that can send emails to groups of McGill or non-McGill email addresses. Some lists are set up to post announcements (only owners and editors can post), and others are set up as discussion lists (any list member may post, but posts are usually moderated).
In this article:
- Basic concepts of sending commands to the LISTSERV
- Subscribing to a list
- Posting to a list
- Replying to messages
- Locating public lists
- Subscribing options
- Digests option
- Conceal option
- Temporarily suspending your subscription
- Unsubscribing from a list
- Serve off (being removed from the list automatically or by the list manager)
- Changing your email address
- Getting help
- Viewing all available list commands
Basic concepts of sending commands to the LISTSERV
As a subscriber/member of a list, you will be sending two types of commands to the LISTSERV via email:
- Commands to the LISTSERV system (LISTSERV@lists.mcgill.ca): Commands to subscribe, unsubscribe, or change subscription options
- Commands and messages posted to the list itself (LISTNAME@lists.mcgill.ca): Use the list's email address when posting or replying to messages on the list.
Example: You want to join the Jane Austen discussion group. The name of the LISTSERV list is austen-l. Commands to subscribe or unsubscribe would be sent to listserv@lists.mcgill.ca. Once subscribed, postings to the list would be sent to austen-l@lists.mcgill.ca.
Subscribing to a list
To subscribe, send an email (with a blank subject line) to listserv@lists.mcgill.ca containing the following text command:
subscribe listname firstname lastname
Example: To subscribe to the Jane Austen discussion group, send an email (with a blank subject line) to listserv@lists.mcgill.ca containing the following text command:
subscribe austen-l john smith
Depending on the configuration of the list, one of the following will occur:
- Depending on the list settings and pending owner approval, the subscription will occur automatically, and a confirmation email will be sent.
- You will need to acknowledge a confirmation email to activate the subscription.
- The subscription request will be forwarded to the list owner.
Posting to a list
By default, most lists at McGill are configured so that only subscribers can post messages. Once subscribed, email postings are sent to listname@lists.mcgill.ca.
For example, postings to the Jane Austen discussion group would be sent to austen-l@lists.mcgill.ca.
Note: Do not include attachments. For most lists, attachments cause the list to automatically reject a message.
NOTE: Embedding links, images, and PDF files
The message must be in HTML format for embedded URL links, images, or PDFs to appear in a listserv message. If you have previously sent a message to a listserv in Plain Text format, Outlook will send all future messages in plain text. To resolve this issue, make sure you've selected HTML on the Format Text tab in Outlook.
Replying to messages
Depending on how the list is configured, replies to messages will be sent to the entire list or the original sender. Therefore, when replying, it is advisable to double-check the "to" field in the email header.
Locating public lists
The company that develops LISTSERV software (L-Soft International Inc.) maintains a listing of all public lists. McGill lists, by default, are private and not included in this listing.
There are currently 55,000 public lists that can be searched. The listing can be found at https://www.lsoft.com/lists/listref.html.
Subscription options
Once subscribed to a list, several subscription options are set, by default, depending on the list configuration. To view the current subscription options, send an email (with a blank subject line) to listserv@lists.mcgill.ca containing the following text command:
query listname
Digests option
Some lists are very active, sending many postings throughout the day. Subscribers can request that all these postings be sent as a single daily email "digest." To change the subscription option to digests, send an email (with a blank subject line) to listserv@lists.mcgill.ca containing the following text command:
set listname digests
To disable the digests option, send an email (with a blank subject line) to listserv@lists.mcgill.ca containing the following text command:
set listname nodigest>
Conceal option
Lists at McGill are, by default, configured so that only the list owner can review all subscribers' names and email addresses. Other lists outside McGill, however, may be configured so that any subscriber can review the membership. To conceal a subscriber name and email address from being viewed, send an email (with a blank subject line) to listserv@lists.mcgill.ca (or the listserv email address outside McGill) containing the following text command:
set listname conceal
Note: Even though the option is set to "conceal," the list owner can still view all the names and email addresses.
Archived lists
If the list is archived, previous postings can be searched and viewed at https://lists.mcgill.ca/archives/index.html. McGill lists are, by default, private and require clicking "unlisted archive form" and entering the list name in the text box.
Temporarily suspending your subscription
To temporarily suspend the delivery of listserv messages, send an email (with a blank subject line) to listserv@lists.mcgill.ca containing the following text command:
set listname nomail
To resume delivery of messages from a list, send an email (with a blank subject line) to listserv@lists.mcgill.ca containing the following text command:
set listname mail
Unsubscribing from a list
To unsubscribe from a list, send an email (with a blank subject line) to listserv@lists.mcgill.ca containing the following text command:
unsubscribe listname
The email request to sign off a list must be the same address as the subscription. If this address is not the same, subscribers will need to contact the list owner.
Serve off
LISTSERV will "serve off" a subscriber if more than 21 consecutive invalid commands are sent to listserv@lists.mcgill.ca. This protects the LISTSERV from loops due to email errors. Once served off, the subscriber cannot post, subscribe, unsubscribe, or set personal options. The list owner would be able to restore their subscription. If the served-off account is the sole owner or if the list owner is unable to restore the subscription, an IT request will need to be logged.
For example, if a subscriber went on vacation and set an automatic out-of-office reply, LISTSERV would serve off that subscriber after receiving 21 automatic replies.
Changing your email address
If you are planning to change your email address, do the following while your email client is still set up with your old address:
- Determine which lists you are subscribed to by sending an email to listserv@lists.mcgill.ca with this command in the body:
QUERY * - Unsubscribe from your old address by sending an email to listserv@lists.mcgill.ca with this command in the body:
UNSUB listname (where you replace the word listname with the name of the list) - After you have reconfigured your mail client with your new email address, resubscribe by sending an email to listserv@lists.mcgill.ca with the command:
SUB listname yourfirstname yourlastname (where you substitute the name of the list and your first and last name)
Note: Not all lists will permit users to add themselves to a list. Often, only an owner is authorized to do this. In that case, you may ask the owner of the list to add your new address and remove any of your old addresses from the list.
To contact the owner of a list, email: listname-request@lists.mcgill.ca (replace listname with the actual name of the list, and this email will go to the primary owner of the list as personal mail).
Owners may change the address of one of their subscribers on all of that owner's lists by sending the following command to listserv@lists.mcgill.ca:
CHANGE * user@old.address user@new.address PW=password
Getting help
All lists have at least one owner who performs maintenance and supports the subscribers. To contact the list owner, send an email to listname-request@lists.mcgill.ca.
Viewing all available list commands.
For a reference card of all available LISTSERV commands, send an email (with a blank subject line) to listserv@lists.mcgill.ca containing the following text command:
info refcard
