Types of Majordomo Lists
The list can be of the following types:
Open or Closed, and Moderated or Unmoderated.
Whether a list is open or closed determines if people can subscribe themselves to the list.
Moderation is the way in which the list owner can screen the emails being sent out to the subscribers of a list. Whether a list is moderated or unmoderated determines whether or not list subscribers can send messages directly to the list.
An open list means that anyone can subscribe to the list by sending an email to Majordomo with subscribe LIST-NAME in the body of the message. This list is very suitable for publicity or open discussion groups.
For IEE Lists, any open list is actually set to open+confirm. An open+confirm list means that when someone subscribes (or is subscribed) to the list, they will get an email from majordomo asking them to confirm their subscription. Within that email there will be an authentication number, which must be sent back to majordomo, with another subscribe command. This does not apply to list owners administration of the list using the approve command and password (the advantage of this being that they can manage the list effectively without any delays waiting for confirmation).
A closed list is one that only the list owner (administrator) can add new subscribers to. Any subscribe requests are bounced to the list owner for approval.
This type of list has a private membership and therefore is more appropriate for a committee type group to use.
If a list is moderated, then any messages sent to the list are bounced to the list-owner for approval. If the list owner approves, then the list owner (using the approval command and password) sends the message. If the list owner does not approve the message then the list owner should send a polite message to the author of the message informing them that the message has not been forwarded to the list. In practice this type of list is usually used for publicity purposes where information transmission is one-way.
If a list is unmoderated then list subscribers can send a message to this list without the need for it to be approved by the list owner. Subscribers can post a message to the list by sending an email to LIST-NAME@iee.org.uk. This list is ideal for a committee type group or open discussions.
NOTE:
Lists should never be set to open/unmoderated as this leaves the list subject to SPAM (junk email, adverts etc.)
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