Part 4: Discussion list settings

If you requested an discussion list, your list will already have the basic settings appropriate for that kind of list.

If you're satisfied with your list's settings, you can skip this section and start testing your list. Alternatively, you may want to fine-tune your list to use more of the special features that are available.

This section of Getting Started covers only the basic settings that you may want to change.

How to adjust settings

On the List Admin Menu, click on the first button, List Info. This will give you access to the numerous list settings that may be modified. See below for a description of the basic features and how you can adjust them.

Headers and Footers:

You may add additional information in the headers and footers, but you must keep the unsubscribe information that is already in the footers. If you do add to the headers and footers, make sure the information is the same for both regular and digest messages.

Security for Subscribers:

• Security: This setting determines how (or if) people can subscribe to your discussion list. Some discussion lists want as many people to subscribe who'd like to, so security is preset to open. If you'd like to control how people subscribe to your list, select one of the other options.

• Visitors: If you'd like people who are not recipients of your list to see it, change Visitors to "Yes." Otherwise, leave it the way it is.

Posting Privileges and Moderation:

• Moderated: Your list is set up so that you must moderate all incoming messages.

  We recommend that you have some form of moderation in place to protect your list from inappropriate or inadvertent postings. If you do not want to moderate all of your list's messages, set Number Moderated to "O."

• Approve #: If you make your list number moderated, select here the number of messages you need to moderate from new members before they can post unmoderated. We recommend that you moderate at least one message from each new member.

• Release Days: If you feel that you may not always be able to moderate messages, set how many days Lyris ListManager should wait before automatically approving messages.

Documents:

A "confirm" document is the message that a person must reply to in order to opt-in and become a member of your list. After they reply, they will receive the "hello" document. Learn how to create and edit these documents. Then, after creating your own "hello" and "confirm" documents, select them here.

Email Headers:

• List Subject: If you'd like the name of your list added to the subject line of the email messages your list members receive, select "Yes" here.

• From: If this field is left blank, the email address of the message's author is put in this field. If you'd like the message to look like it comes from somewhere else, enter that email address here.

  Note: there must be a legitimate email address in this field. Otherwise, many sites will not accept your mail because it appears to be spam.

  You may want to make the From: address be the list's email address; this setting will prevent the message's author's email from being displayed, and will ensure that members trying to reply to the message will send their messages to the entire group, not just that person.

• Reply To: If this field is blank, Lyris ListManager fills it in with the email address of the list. When members reply to a message, their responses will go to the entire list. You can set it to reply to the author by typing author in this field.

• To: By default, this field is not filled in, and Lyris ListManager sets the To: header to be: List Description <list-email-address>, as in Jazz Discussion List <jazz@comet.sparklist.com>.

  If you want to have the To: header be the email address of each recipient, you can use the ListManager mail merge feature to accomplish this. In the To: field, enter %%nameemail%%.

• Anonymous Headers: Making a list anonymous removes each member's name and email address from messages he/she posts to the list. Learn more about headers.

What's next?

• Part 3: Announcement list settings
• Part 5: Testing your list
• Getting Started main page