From: Jonathan Duddington
Subject: Mailing List Server
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 22:40:00
Source: Docs

Introduction
============

Pluto can act as a simple mailing list server.  It allows you to run a mailing list, i.e. to receive emails which are addressed to the List and then broadcast them to the members of the List.

The mailing list is run from your computer, so the mailing list can only operate when you connect to the internet. 

Broadcasting can be either Automatic (incoming messages are broadcast automatically when they are debatched) or Manual (which allows you to add comments to messages before you broadcast them).

Pluto recognises Subscribe and Unsubscribe (and Signon and Signoff) messages and adds and removes their senders' email addresses from the list.

Pluto also allows you to combine a number of broadcast messages, which are waiting in the outgoing message queue, into a single Digest message.  This reduces the time taken to transmit the messages to your ISP.

Examples in this section use a mailing list which has the email address of  pluto-L@argonet.co.uk    Replace this with the address of your own mailing list.


Setup
=====

You need an email address for the mailing list.  People send emails to this address for them to be broadcast.  Set up this address in Pluto's Users List.  Set the "Mail List Server" option for this User to either "Manual", "Automatic", or "Private" (see below).

Set up a Distribution List for the mailing list.  Use Lists->Distribution_lists to open Pluto's Distribution Lists directory and create a file whose filename is the same as the User Name of the mailing list.  For example, for the
   pluto-L@argonet.co.uk
mailing list, the Distribution List will be a file named  pluto-L

If the name contains any . (dot) characters, replace these by / characters in the file name.

Initially the Distribution List should contain just:

!To:
Pluto mailing list <pluto-L@argonet.co.uk>
!Bcc:

(where you would replace the "Pluto mailing list .." line with the name and address of your mailing list).  When Pluto receives Subscribe and Unsubscribe  messages from users, it will add and remove them from the list.


Subscribe and Unsubscribe
=========================

People can send Subscribe and Unsubscribe messages to the mailing list address and these automatically add and remove their email address (i.e. the From: address in the message) from the distribution list.

These messages should have just the word
   Subscribe
or
   Unsubscribe
in their Subject line.  Any text in the message body will be ignored.  Pluto will generate a response to the email address which states that the Subscribe or Unsubscribe request has been processed.

Pluto will also accept and recognise  Signon  and  Signoff  in place of  Subscribe  and  Unsubscribe.  All these commands are case-insensitive.


Running the Mailing List
========================

Automatic.

When Pluto debatches emails which are addressed to the mailing list address, it automatically broadcasts them to the List by putting a copy into the outgoing mail queue, addressed to all the addresses on the mailing list's distribution list.  The messages will appear in Pluto's outgoing message queue ("Q") with the word "Broadcast" and the name of the original sender.

Private.

This is the same as Automatic, except that command messages (Subscribe etc) are not recognised.  So the distribution list can be changed only by manual editing.

Manual

In this case, Pluto does not put copies into the outgoing mail queue automatically.  It's recommended that you have a separate Box just for receiving the mailing list emails.  The recommended settings for the Box are:
   Sort on:  Status
   Editable articles  (this allows you to add comments to messages)
   Leave unread
   Expire to an archive box for this mailing list after (perhaps) 21 days.

With these settings, the Box will show the Unread messages at the top of the list.  They will stay Unread until you broadcast them to the mailing list.

Subscribe and Unsubscribe messages will also appear in the article list.  You don't want to broadcast these, just set them to "Read" status by CTRL-E or clicking on the "Set Read" button.

To broadcast a message to the mailing list, open it in the Article Viewer and select-click on the "Mailing List" button from the Reply Dialogue.  the message will then appear in Pluto's outgoing message queue ("Q").

If you want to send a separate message (from yourself) as a reply then adjust-click on the Mailing List button in the Reply Dialogue.  This will open a Write Mail window, quoting the original message.  When you post this reply, it doesn't go into Pluto's outgoing message queue, but is delivered to the mailing list in the same way as incoming mailing list messages, for you to broadcast in the same way.


Making Digests
==============

(Not currently implemented for use with the ANT mail transport).

If you have a large number of addresses in the distribution list then it can take a long time for each message to be transmitted to your ISP when it's being broadcast.  Pluto allows you to combine a number of mailing list messages which are waiting in Pluto's outgoing message queue into a single Digest message which will take less time to transmit than a number of single messages.

To make a Digest message, open Pluto's "Q" ("Waiting to be Sent") list, select one of the waiting mailing list messages and type CTRL-SHIFT-D [1].  Pluto will replace this, and any other messages for the same mailing list, and which have the same list of addressees, by a single Digest message.

[1] Provisional command.  This may change.


Adding Signatures
=================

If the mailing list User (in Pluto's Users List) has a signature specified for it, then that signature will be added to messages when they are broadcast to the list.

If the message already contains a signature with a signature separator ("-- " on a line by itself) then Pluto will not add another signature separator before the additional signature.  If you do want an extra signature separator, you can include it at the start of the signature file.


Message Headers
===============

Pluto adds a  Reply-to:  line, containing the mailing list email address, to the message header.  It does not do this if the message already contains a Reply-To: line.

You can add additional header lines by including them at the start of the signature file (see Section: Signatures).  For example:

$ List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:pluto@argonet.co.uk?Subject=Unsubscribe>

would add a   List-Unsubscribe:  line to the message header.


Filters
=======

Filters on incoming messages are applied after mailing list messages have been broadcast (for automatic mailing list operation) and after mailing command messages (eg. Subscribe) have been processed.


Undelivered Messages
======================

If messages which have been broadcast are returned by an ISP as being undelivered (for example "Mail delivery failed" messages from "Mailer-Daemon"), then Pluto delivers these responses into the Box which is specified in
    Preferences->Delivery->Returned(MLS)

 