Campus Mailing Lists, Subscribe to or unsubscribe from a mail list
How do I subscribe or unsubscribe from a mailing list?
There are multiple ways to subscribe or unsubscribe subscribers from a mail list. These include using the web UI, email interface or a temporary suspension from posting or receiving email from a list.
Use The Web Interface
To unsubscribe from a list: - Log into https://lists.illinois.edu.
- Click the "My lists" link.
- Click the list name you want to unsubscribe.
- On the list web page, click the "Unsubscribe" link in the left menu.
- Done, you are no longer a member
- Log into https://lists.illinois.edu.
- If you know the name of the list that you want to subscribe to, type it in the search box and click "Search lists". Alternatively, you can click the "Index of Lists" which will display the lists that are configured for public visibility.
- Click the list name of the list you wish to subscribe.
- In the menu on the left, click "Subscribe". This will send a subscription request to the list owner for approval.
Use The email Interface
Send an email with a single command
To unsubscribe send an email to sympa@lists.illinois.edu with the following message:
NOTE: leave the message body blank and remove any auto sig that gets included. The automatic signature this will cause errors and the server to reject it because it tries to execute the data in signature as commands.
To subscribe send an email to sympa@mail domain, e.g. sympa@lists.illinois.edu with the following commands: The server will use the email address you send email from for the subscriber email address. If the mail list is private list then a subscribe request will be sent to the list owner. If the list is open to the public then the server will add your email to the list.
Option 1: Subject: subscribe LISTNAME
If you want to associate your name and title with the email address then you can also include it in the subject:
Option 2: Subject: subscribe LISTNAME Mr.Some Body
To unsubscribe send an email to sympa@lists.illinois.edu with the following message:
signoff LISTNAME
Send Email with Multiple Commands
In this case, you leave the subject blank and put each one command per line in the body of the message.
Multiple Command Example
to: sympa@lists.illinois.edu
subject:
body:
Subscribe listName user@email.address
INVITE listname user@email.com
INVITE listname user@email.com
See https://www.sympa.org/overview/features#email_commands for additional email commands.
Temporary Removal of a Subscriber from a List
There are times when a subscriber needs to be suspended from posting email to a list or receiving email from a list. Here are a few options to address this situation:
Suspend subscriber from receiving email from list?
- [Manage Subscribers] > (Exclude) button. These mail list members will be excluded from all posts to the list.
- [Manage Subscribers] > (Delete selected email addresses) button. Just delete the email address from the subscribers list. To prevent unwanted subscribers, the list owner(s) can define ‘who can subscribe to the list’. This setting is under: (Admin) > [Edit List Config] > Privileges > ‘who can subscribe to the list’
Suspend subscriber from sending to list? Each mail list has a:
- [Blocklist] – block all inbound from the email addresses in this setting. Use case: An open list in which a subscriber who posts irrelevant messages but they still are valid consumers of list information.
- [Modlist] – send all email from these senders to the moderator; if no moderator then list owner. Use case: subscriber who tends to rant, get off topic, etc..
- [Safelist] – send all email to mail list subscribers and by pass moderation if configured. Use case: Prof sends email to all their student mail lists.