Department of Astronomy - Mailing Lists

Mailing lists - User Guide

How the mailing list service works

The mailing-list service is managed by a mailing-list software: Sympa. This software comes with a web mailing list environment.

To perform actions related to mailing lists (subscribe, change your options, etc.), you have two options:

• log on to the web environment;
• send commands by email to the Sympa mailing list manager at sympa@lists.astro.illinois.edu.

To send a command to Sympa, do as follows:

• If you send a single command, type it into the subject line of your email and leave its body blank.
• If you send several commands, leave the subject line of your email blank and type all the commands in the email body. Be careful: Sympa will not process your message unless you respect the following rules:
  • Write every command on a new line.
  • Send your message in plain text, not in HTML (no formatting).
  • Your message can not contain anything else than Sympa commands (no signature block).

A description of all the commands you can send to Sympa is available at mail_commands.

• Subscribing to mailing lists
• Logging on to the mailing list environment
• Checking your subscriptions
• Review members
• Managing your preferences
  • Changing your subscriber options
  • Changing your general preferences
• Searching for a mailing list
• Reading the list archive online
• Sending a message
• Using the shared document web space
• Manage your subscriptions
• Unsubscribing from lists