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General Information
Email lists have two email addresses that you must be able to differentiate between:
List Server Address - This is the email address that CONTROLS the email list. Email sent to this address allows you to add/remove people from email lists, retrieve the full list of current subscribers, and a variety of other administrative functions. The actual email address for the list server is typically:
List Address - Note, the lack of the word "server". This is the email address of the list itself. Email sent to this address have the potential to be broadcast to all the active members of the email list. The word potential is used here because some email lists require authorization in the form of a password to allow the message to be broadcast. The actual email address of the list appears to be the same as any other email address you may be familiar with. There is nothing syntactically different from this address and any generic email address you'd see on the internet.
Managing the email list
Usually email addresses are added to the list automatically by placing the appropriate "join our email list" entry box on your web site so people can add their email easily and conveniently. This is a very popular and proven way of generating real, interested viewers.
You may also wish to manage the list manually. To do this, you would send email to your listserv address (i.e., listserv@yourdomain.com) with list commands found in the body. One very important thing to note:
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When sending multiple commands to the listserv, be certain to turn off HTML formatting in your message. Some email programs use odd formatting techniques that tend to confuse the list server. Again, this is only for messages to the listserv, not to the list in general.
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The important commands you should know are:
- JOIN [listname] [email]
- LEAVE [listname] [email]
- LIST [listname]
In each case, replace "[listname]" with the name of your email list (i.e. "news") and replace "[email]" with the email address you wish to add or remove from the list.
For example, you may send in this fashion:
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To: listserv@mydomain.com
From: your@email.address.com
Subject: subject is not important and can be blank
Join news jdoe@hospital.com
Leave news bclinton@whitehouse.com
Join news jhancock@revolution.com
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Passworded email lists
If your email list has a password to control the list and/or to broadcast the email, simply place the password on the first line of the body of the message preceded with the word "password":
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Password mypassword
Rest of body
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Sending an email to the subscribers of your list
To send an email to your list subscribers, simply address your email as you would normally using the lists' email address (yourlist@yourdomain.com). You may use HTML formatting to make the message as "pretty" as you wish. Once sent, the list server will utilize a very highly efficient delivery system to get your email to all your subscribers as quickly as possible. Any email addresses that are bad (the message comes back "address unknown") will be removed from the email list automatically.
Shortly after sending your email, you should get a confirmation that the email was sent to X number of subscribers.
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