On our system, a mailing list is a single email address that distributes messages to a group of subscribers. When a message is sent to the address, the mailing list server distributes it to all subscribers.
To create a mailing list, see How to create a new mailing list.
To manage or use mailing lists through the web interface, see How to access the mailing list web interface.
Mailman is the software May First uses to manage mailing lists.
It handles subscriptions, message delivery, moderation, archives, and administrative controls.
May First uses Mailman 3, the current major version of the software.
Postorius is the web interface for for list members and administrators in Mailman3.
It allows users to:
The same interface is used by subscribers, moderators, and owners.
Mailman uses its own user database, separate from May First accounts and the control panel.
Mailman is built around mailing lists, which are managed using email addresses rather than usernames. For this reason, your email address is your primary identity in Mailman.
When you create a Mailman account, you choose a username, email address, and password. The username is arbitrary and does not determine which mailing lists you can access.
You can sign in using either your username or your email address, but we recommend using your email address.
If your email address is already a subscriber, moderator, or owner of any mailing lists at May First, those lists will automatically appear in your account after you sign in.
You can also associate additional email addresses with the same Mailman account. Any mailing lists tied to those addresses will also appear in your account.
To create or access your account, see How to access the mailing list web interface.
Mailman assigns permissions through roles.
A single person (email address) may have different roles on different lists, or multiple roles on the same list.
Members are subscribers who receive messages from the mailing list.
Depending on the list configuration, members may also be allowed to post messages to the list.
Moderators review and approve or reject messages and subscription requests.
Owners have full administrative control over a mailing list., including:
Being an owner or moderator does not automatically subscribe you to the mailing list.
As a result, owners and moderators may not receive messages sent to the list unless they are also subscribed as members.
When creating a new mailing list, May First lets you choose either a discussion or announcement list. This sets a default configuration for how the list behaves.
Discussion lists allow subscribers to send messages to the list and receive replies from other members.
Messages are distributed to all subscribers, supporting group conversations over email.
Announcement lists restrict who can send messages to the list.
Typically only designated senders, moderators, or owners can post. These lists are commonly used for newsletters, alerts, and organizational updates.
The discussion or announcement type selected when a mailing list is created provides an initial configuration. List owners can later customize many aspects of how the list behaves through the Mailman web interface.
The settings below are among the most commonly adjusted.
By default, mailing lists are not shown in the public list directory.
The List Identity → Show list on index page setting controls whether a mailing list appears in the public directory at:
https://a.lists.mayfirst.org/mailman3/postorius/lists/
Making a list public allows anyone to discover the list, read its description, and, depending on the subscription policy, request to join.
We do not recommend making your mailing list public. Public lists attract automated subscription requests from bots.
Mailing list archives can be configured independently of the list's visibility.
The Archiving → Archive policy setting controls whether archives are:
Public archives are commonly used for newsletters, announcements, or projects that intentionally publish their discussions. Private archives restrict access to authorized users.
To learn how to access archives, see How to access mailing list archives.
We do not recommend making archives public. Public archives may expose private discussions and are frequently indexed or scraped by automated systems.
The list of subscribers is visible only to list administrators by default.
The List Identity → Members list visibility setting determines whether the subscriber list is visible to:
We do not recommend making the subscriber list public. This exposes subscriber email addresses to harvesting and spam.
The Member Policy → Subscription Policy and Member Policy → Un-Subscription Policy settings control how people can join and leave a mailing list.
Both settings support the same options:
Never set either policy to Open. Requiring at least email confirmation helps prevent automated spam subscriptions and unauthorized unsubscriptions.
Setting the Un-Subscription Policy to Confirm without additional moderation is recommended.
Discussion and announcement lists differ primarily in who is allowed to post messages, but list owners can further customize how messages from different senders are handled.
The Message Acceptance settings determine whether messages are accepted immediately, held for moderation, rejected, or discarded.
The Message Acceptance → Default action to take when a member posts to the list setting controls how messages from subscribed members are handled by default.
Available actions are:
You can override the default behavior for individual subscribers from Users → Members by opening a member's Subscription Options.
Each member's Moderation option can be assigned to any of the actions listed above, or List default, which applies the list-wide setting instead.
Default processing and List default are different settings.
Default processing tells Mailman to continue its normal processing for that subscriber. List default tells Mailman to use whatever action is configured for the mailing list's default member policy.
Mailman does not include a built-in HTML email composer, but it can distribute HTML messages sent from email clients.
The Alter Messages → Filter content and Convert HTML to plaintext settings control how HTML email is handled.
Mailman includes a template system for customizing the text of automated messages sent to subscribers, moderators, and list owners. Templates can also be used to add standard headers or footers to messages distributed through a mailing list.
Templates are managed from the Templates section of the Mailman web interface. When creating a template, you choose the context it applies to, such as welcome messages, moderation notices, or message footers.
Each template context supports a set of template variables that are substituted when the message is generated. All available variables are listed in the template editor, but not every variable is valid in every context.
The official Mailman documentation includes a technical description of the template system.
For examples of the available templates, the default templates included with Mailman are often the best reference. They are distributed with the Mailman source code and Debian packages under the language-specific templates directory, for example:
mailman/src/mailman/templates/en/
Common templates include:
list:user:notice:welcome.txtlist:user:notice:goodbye.txtlist:user:notice:hold.txtlist:user:notice:rejected.txtlist:member:generic:footer.txtlist:member:regular:header.txtlist:admin:notice:subscribe.txtlist:admin:notice:unsubscribe.txt