Setting up Your lists
Topics in this article include:
Set up your new lists
Before you can use this email system, you will need to create mailing lists so that mail can be properly routed to its intended recipient.
Go to: Communication area > Email lists
You will see a message telling you that no mailing lists have been defined. Go to the top right corner and click "Manage email lists". On that page, click the link in the top right corner that says "Add list".
When adding a list, there are three standard settings:
- Check marking if the list is enabled for use
- The list name - for organization
- The list address/alias - the address used to send to the list.
After you've filled out those options, you can select one of three list types:
- Distribution list
- Chat list
- Public-facing email
After selecting your settings - options for selecting senders, recipients and owners will expand and collapse accordingly.
Below is a description of the settings for each list style:
Distribution
You will select Permitted Senders (people allowed to send email to the list), Recipients (emails sent to the list go to these people), and possible Owners (if someone is in charge of managing this list other than a site admin, this gives them editing power over this list).
In this style of list, recipients can only reply to the original sender - reply all is not allowed.
Example: Member lists where communication may need to be controlled with only certain people being able to send to the whole group. Newsletters. Sending to contact lists.
Chat
You will select Recipients (emails sent to the list go to these people). All Recipients are automatically Permitted Senders (people allowed to send email to the list). You can also select Owners (if someone is in charge of managing this list other than a site admin, this gives them editing power over this list).
In this style of list, recipients can reply to the sender, or hit reply all.
Example: Board Members who need to discuss topics as a group, therefore needing the "reply all" option.
Public-facing email
This style of list is special.
You will select Owners - they will also automatically be "Recipients". No Permitted Sender is selected because this style of list is open to the public - meaning anyone can send to this list. Owners can reply to anonymous senders. It will appear to come from the list address, and responses will thread in this forum. This list functions like an "alias" - allowing a person to hide their personal email address while communicating with the public.
Reminder: Replies to an email that comes in via a public-facing email list will include the original sender of the email! This is a special behaviour of public facing-lists.
Example:
- John Smith (a member of the public, and not a user in the site) sends an email to [email protected], which is a public facing list.
- [email protected] forwards that email to the list owners, Bob B, and Claire C.
- Bob receives the email and clicks reply - the address they are replying to will appear to be "[email protected]"
- Bob's reply email will go to himself, Claire, AND the original sender, because it is in reply to that thread.
Please note: public-facing lists cannot be used to start a conversation with an outside source. They are still just a mailing list, and not a true email address/inbox.
Example: General information email addresses, tickets, registration, membership, director, marketing contacts, etc.
Go to the "Manage email lists" page (Go to: Communication area > Email lists. Go to the top right corner and click "Manage email lists")
You can see your current settings for each list on this page. Click "edit" on the right hand side to edit the associated list.
First, go to the edit screen for the list (see instructions above).
To disable the list, uncheck the box next to "enable this list" and then save the page. When disabled, a list cannot receive any email. It will not appear on the main Email Lists page, but it can still be found and edited on the Manage email lists page.
To delete a list, scroll to the bottom and click the "delete" button. It will ask you to confirm this action.