Majordomo is a program that automates the management of Internet mailing lists. Majordomo was developed and is maintained by Brent Chapman (Great Circle Associates) and has proved very popular for small and medium sized lists.
Commands are sent to Majordomo via email (in plain text format) to handle all aspects of list maintenance. Once a list is set up, virtually all operations can be performed remotely requiring no intervention upon the administrator of the list site.
Note: The IET uses Majordomo version 1.94 to administer its Email mailing lists. This information is specifically for this version.
Majordomo operates at two levels:
- Majordomo manager, which involves processing email sent to majordomo@iee.org.uk, actioning and responding to the commands contained in the body of the message as appropriate. This includes handling of requests to subscribe, unsubscribe and sending information about the list or lists.
- Messages are posted to the list by sending an email to "LIST-NAME@iee.org.uk" where 'LIST-NAME' is the name of the list. The email is then passed to Majordomo which distributes the message to subscribers of the list.
The main features of Majordomo are:
- Each list has a list owner who has primary responsibility for the list.
- Administration of the list can be performed by the list-owner using email.
- Configuration of the list is secure and is not maintained by the list owner (it cannot be changed via email). Changes must be requested via the IET Internet Services Group (ISG) by sending an email to webmaster@theiet.org. This reduces the workload on the list owner and helps prevent security breaches.
- Lists can be "open" or "closed" depending upon whether the list is available to everyone or just a select group of people, e.g. a committee.
- Lists can be "moderated" or "unmoderated" depending upon whether the list is being used for announcements or discussions).
- "Replies" to a posting can be sent directly to the original sender, or back to the list. For most discussion lists, sending replies to the list is advisable. For committee-type lists, replies are normally posted directly to the list.
- "Help" on commands is available from Majordomo if you send and email to majordomo@iee.org.uk, with the command help as the body of the text. Majordomo will then send you an email listing the commands available.
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