mailing list question

[pathways]

I need some help with establishing a mailing list that is essentially an "announce only" mailing list.

I will be the administrator. I would like to have a limited number of people who can send email to the people on the list, and for the purposes of this question I will call them "posters." The people on the list, let's call them "list members," will receive email from the posters but as list members they are not set up to post to the entire list. The list members may respond to the email they receive but their response will go only to the person who posted the email, the poster.

That explains what I would like to do. I am unsure of how to accomplish that using the configuration tools that I find on the email list configuration pages. Thanks in advance for the help.

Regards - Dave Hansen
Tech Support
Pathways Charter School
[email protected]
*************************************

[patty1]

Dave, I haven't used Sonic's own list software myself, but FYI, Yahoo Groups can do all the things you ask. You can control who can and can't post, and you can have replies directed to the original poster rather than back to the list. (Of course, you can't stop people from changing the default reply address and attempting to post their responses to the entire list, but if they don't have posting privileges, those attempts will either bounce or come to you for approval to be posted to the list.)

I'm only on one Google Group and am not an owner there, so I'm not as familiar with that software's features, but I imagine that it also has the features you need.


Patty

[tikvah]

I run several lists on Sonic and have for years. One is an announce-only list. The easy way to set that up is simply to make it require moderation for posts and only remove the handful of people you trust from moderation. Then you can go in and delete all other submissions (or put a few through, however you wish). You'll get email notifications of submissions that are held for moderation.

Another trick I use is to change the reply-to line. You do this in the online config, not message by message. My announce list is paired with a chat list, so I set all replies from announce to go to chat. If you do not have a discussion list paired with your announce list then simply set your reply-to to go to the author of the post, not to the list.

Here are the details:

Go to
https://lists.sonic.net/mailman/admindb/your-list-name

Click on "General Options"

Make sure your email address is in the owner section. I have the moderator section blank.

To redirect to another list:
Where are replies to list messages directed? Poster is strongly recommended for most mailing lists.
Choose: Explicit address

Explicit Reply-To: header.
Put the email address of your discussion list.

To send replies to poster:
Where are replies to list messages directed? Poster is strongly recommended for most mailing lists.
Choose: Poster
Leave header line blank

That's it. Much nicer software than Yahoogroups or GoogleGroups. The latter two have some bells and whistles that Mailman doesn't have but Sonic will NEVER suddenly remove your list with no warning and no chance to retrieve your files. Sonic will never hold a list hostage until the end of time because the sole person identified as "owner" dies and the moderators have no ownership powers (yes, this has happened to me, for a group run by a nonprofit I'm on the board of).

Enjoy your lists!
Cyndi