LISTSERV ® is a system used to create, manage and control electronic mailing lists. Listservs are a convenient way to send messages to groups of people with a common interest. Many groups on campus use listservs to communicate with their members. There are also listservs for many academic departments and for various majors and minors. Most listservs require individuals to subscribe in order to be part of the list. Online documentation, list archives, the official catalog of public LISTSERV lists, and the Mailing List Management Interface (for list owners only) can be found on the LISTSERV Home Page.

A List Owner is a person who manages a list. The list owner is authorized to add and delete users, modify the list header and modify the security options. All listservs are managed by a least one list owner. The owner can manage the list by E-mailing the appropriate commands directly to listserv@listserv.binghamton.edu or by using our Listserv web site. The web site is the preferred method of many list owners. List Owner commands are discussed later in this document.

ESG (Electronic Study Group) is the name we use at Binghamton University for a listserv whose members are the students in a particular class as well as the instructor and teaching assistants for that class. All students in the class can be automatically subscribed to the list when it is set up or the instructor can ask each student to subscribe individually. ESG listserv names are based on the university department and course number, for example (MIS311, SOC254, etc.).

The Listserv Request Form should be used to request creation of a list.  For assistance contact the Help Desk (ext.76420, helpdesk@binghamton.edu).

Listserv users and owners should be familiar with the Binghamton University Listserv Policy.

Listserv Subscribers

A list for learning

TEST-L is a list that has been set up for users to try the listserv commands. Users are invited to join TEST-L, send mail to TEST-L, reply to mail, etc.

Joining a list 

To join a list at Binghamton University, send email to listserv@listserv.binghamton.edu from the address you want added to the mailing list. The body of the email contains the command you are issuing to the server. The command to join a list is "subscribe". For example, to join the TEST-L list, the body of the email is:

Subscribe TEST-L your_first_name your_last_name

or

Sub TEST-L your_first_name your_last_name
 

Be sure not to include any other text and to turn off adding a signature block!

Leaving a list 

To leave a list, send email to: listserv@listserv.binghamton.edu. The body of the email contains the command "signoff" and the name of the list. For example, to leave (unsubscribe from) the list TEST-L, the body of the email is:

Signoff TEST-L

or

Unsub TEST-L

Sending mail to a list 

To send mail to everyone on the list, address the mail to the listname@server.name. For example, to send mail to TEST-L, address the mail to:

TEST-L@listserv.binghamton.edu

Replying to mail from the list

When you reply to a message, you are not prompted for the subject or for the recipient; the mail program generates this header information for you. Before you reply to a message from the list, you need to decide if you want to send your reply to everyone on the list or only to the person who sent the message to the list. Because each e-mail program has its own way of handling this, you should check the documentation to make sure you understand when you are replying to the list and when you are replying to just the sender.

Note: . When the list is set up if it is defined as "reply to list", any reply command will go to the list, regardless of whether you use "reply all", or a simple reply.

Subscription options:

Your subscription to a particular list can be customized. For a list of the current options, send a message to listserv@listserv.binghamton.edu with the text "query listname". For example:

query TEST-L

To set the options, send a message to listserv@listserv.binghamton.edu with the text "set listname option1 option2". For example:

set TEST-L repro

Some of the options you might want to use are:
 

REPro/NOREPro	Set REPro to receive a copy of mail you send to the list. If your mail client is configured to log copies of your outgoing mail, you probably want this set to NOREPro.
Mail/NOMail	Set NOMail to prevent mail from being sent to your address. NOMail is often used during extended leaves to prevent mail from accumulating.
DIGest/NODIGest	Set DIGest to receive one posting per digest cycle (usually daily) instead of separate messages as they are processed.
INDex/NOINDex	Set INDex to receive one posting per digest cycle containing only an index of subject topics . Instructions on how to retrieve the individual postings are included with the index.

The DIGest/NODIGest and INDex/NOINDex options control the format in which messages should be delivered. The Mail/NOMail options control whether or not mail is delivered. Thus, switching to NOMAIL and back to MAIL does not destroy the digest/index/normal delivery setting; it simply determines whether or not LISTSERV should send any list mail to you. The following table (taken from the LISTSERV documentation) should help clarify matters:
 

DIGest	enable digest delivery mode (which negates INDEX), enable mail delivery
INDex	enable index delivery mode (which negates DIGEST), enable mail delivery
NOMail	disable mail delivery
Mail	restore mail delivery, without altering the digest/index/normal delivery setting

Who is on the list? 

To get a list of subscribers to a list you have subscribed to address email message to listserv@listserv.binghamton.edu with the text: "review listname". For example, to find out who is subscribed to TEST-L, issue the command:

review TEST-L

Listserv Owners

A list owner can manage a list via email by sending commands to listserv@listserv.binghamton.edu or through the web by using the Mailing List Management Interface (availble via the LISTSERV Home Page after logging in). The sections below describe how you would manage a list via email.

Add a user to a list

To add a user to a list you own and generate a message saying they have been added send email to: listserv@listserv.binghamton.edu where the body of the email contains the command "add listname address full-name". For example, to add the user Joe Suny to mylist-l, issue the command:

ADD mylist-L bg12345@binghamton.edu Joe Suny

To add a user to a list you own and NOT generate a message saying they have been added you would add the quiet option:

QUIET ADD mylist-L bg12345@binghamton.edu Joe Suny

Delete a user from a list

To delete a user from a list you own and generate a message saying they have been deleted send email to: listserv@listserv.binghamton.edu where the body of the email contains the command "del listname address full-name". For example, to delete the user Joe Suny from mylist-l, issue the command:

DEL mylist-L bg12345@binghamton.edu

To delete a user from a list you own and NOT generate a message saying they have been deleted you would add the quiet option:

QUIET DEL mylist-L bg12345@binghamton.edu