LISTSERV Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

This is a compilation of some of the frequently asked questions(FAQ) regarding LISTSERV, for more information maintaining a list, please see "Getting Started with Managing a LISTSERV Mailing List (Owners)".


  1. How do I request a new LISTSERV list?  
  2. I don't remember my password for LISTSERV. How can I reset it?  
  3. I currently own a LISTSERV list. How do I change the owner?
  4. Can a LISTSERV list have more than one owner?  
  5. I don't know who owns a particular LISTSERV list. How do I contact the owner?  
  6. Why is our LISTSERV list not publicly listed?   
  7. We have a new list, but when I try to send an email to it I get a "5.1.1 illegal or unknown alias"   
  8. How do I add or remove subscribers to a LISTSERV list?
  9. How do I add or remove many subscribers to a LISTSERV list at one time?
  10. How do I delete a LISTSERV list?
  11. Why don't I receive a copy of my own message when sending to a LISTSERV list?
  12. How Do I Enable UTF-8 Compatible Headers in LISTSERV?
  13. How Do I Set a Footer(Bottom Banner) in LISTSERV?
  14. How Do I Set a Mail Template in LISTSERV?
  15. How do I stop receiving messages from a LISTSERV list temporarily without being removed from it?
  16. Why doesn't my LISTSERV list deliver mail anymore? Or LISTSERV reports that the list is held?

How do I request a new LISTSERV list?
  1. Login to the LISTSERV request page with your UH username and password.
  2. Follow the instructions on the page. You will need to supply a name for the new list (must include a hyphen), provide a description, and select one of the configuration options.
  3. At the bottom of the page, acknowledge the terms of use (UH Executive Policy E2.210, Chapter 708, Hawaii Revised StatutesList Owner's Responsibilities) by checking off the boxes and click on "Request List".


I don't remember my password for LISTSERV. How can I reset it?
  1. From the home page, click on "Log In".
  2. On the Login Required page, click on "Forgot password?".


     
  3. On the next page, enter your complete email address (e.g. username@hawaii.edu) and a new password in both password fields, then click on "Register Password". You should now see a Confirmation Sent page, continue to the final step to confirm your new password.


     
  4. Check your email for a message from LISTSERV with a subject line of "Command confirmation request". Click on the link or copy and paste the URL into your browser window to confirm your new password. You should see a message indicating that "Your new password was registered successfully".  Note: If you do not confirm within 48 hours, your request to register a new password will be cancelled and you must start a new request.




I currently own a LISTSERV list. How do I change the owner?
  1. From the home page, click on "Log In" in the top-right corner and sign in using your email address and LISTSERV password.
  2. Under "List Management" on the left, select "List Configuration". Then, select the "Administrators" tab.


     
  3. On the List Configuration page, select the list that you are modifying from the drop-down menu below "Select List".
    Note: If you only own one list, it will be selected by default.


     
  4. Enter the email address(es) of the new owner(s) with one address per line, review the address(es) entered for typos, and click on "Update" when done. Any owner listed under "Quiet:" will have list management rights, but will not receive any delivery error or administrative mail from LISTSERV.
    Note: 1) If you are removing yourself as an owner, once you click on submit you will immediately lose access to manage the list. Be sure this is what you want to do! 2) Only a LISTSERV site administrator can add other lists as owners of a list.


Can a LISTSERV list have more than one owner?

Yes, LISTSERV lists can have multiple owners. You can view or modify owners by following the steps listed here.


I don't know who owns a particular LISTSERV list. How do I contact the owner?

To contact the owner(s) of a LISTSERV list, send an email to listname-request@lists.hawaii.edu, where listname is name of the list in question. For example if you want to contact the owner(s) of the list LISTSERV-L@lists.hawaii.edu, you would email LISTSERV-L-request@lists.hawaii.edu.


Why is our LISTSERV list not publicly listed?

To display your list on the main page, you will need to change the "Confidential" setting.

  1. From the home page, click on "Log In" in the top-right corner and sign in using your email address and LISTSERV password.
  2. Under "List Management" on the left, select "List Configuration" followed by "Show All Keywords".


     
  3. On the List Configuration page, first select the list that you are modifying. Then, scroll down and click on "Confidential".  Note: If you only own one list, it will be selected by default.



  4. Using the drop-down menu, select "Service" and click on "Update". (Selecting "No" will also cause the list to be displayed on the L-Soft Global Lists) Note: Use of the confidential setting does not safeguard your list other than removing/displaying your list on the index of lists.



  5. To check if your list is visible, click on "Subscriptions" in the “Subscriber Options” menu. Then, click “Customize Report”, select “Show All Lists” from the drop-down menu, and click “Update”.


We have a new list, but when I try to send an email to it I get a "5.1.1 illegal or unknown alias"

If you are correctly addressing the list (don't forget that all list names have a hyphen in them), then there may have been an error in the list creation process. In this case, please contact the ITS Help Desk at (808) 956-8883 (neighbor island residents may call (800) 558-2669), email help@hawaii.edu, or use the form at http://www.hawaii.edu/its/contact.


How do I add or remove subscribers to a LISTSERV list?
  1. From the home page, click on "Log In" in the top-right corner and sign in using your email address and LISTSERV password.
  2. Under the "List Management" options in the menu on the left, select "Subscriber Management". You may need to click on the '>' button in the top-left corner to unhide the menu.


     
  3. Use the "Select List" drop-down menu to choose which list you would like to manage subscribers for.


     
  4. To add a subscriber, enter their email address optionally followed by their first and last name in the text field next to "Email Address and Name". You may also select whether or not the subscriber receives an email notification. When done, click on "Add Subscriber".

    To delete a subscriber, enter their email address in the field below "Search for Subscribers (list name)". Then, click on "Search". At the bottom of the subsequent page, click on "Delete".


How do I add or remove many subscribers to a LISTSERV list at one time?

You will need a plain text formatted file with one email address (optionally followed by a first and last name separated by a space) per line. Each line or entry must be separated by a carriage return. You can use programs such as "Notepad" or "Microsoft Word" but you must save the file in plain text (*.txt) format.



  1. From the home page, click on "Log In" in the top-right corner and sign in using your email address and LISTSERV password.
  2. Under the "List Management" options in the menu on the left, select "Subscriber Reports". You may need to click on the '>' button in the top-left corner to unhide the menu.


     
  3. Click on the "Bulk Operations" link next to the "Add Subscriber" section of the page.


     
  4. In the window that appears, select your desired option and click on "Choose File" to select the plain text file containing the email addresses you would like added or removed. Then, click "Import".


How do I delete a LISTSERV list?

If you are a list owner, please email help@hawaii.edu from your @hawaii.edu account with the name of the list that you would like deleted. The request may take 1-2 business days to complete.


Why don't I receive a copy of my own message when sending to a LISTSERV list?

Gmail recognizes that the incoming message is identical to the copy in your Sent Items and does not duplicate it to your inbox.

Google's recommendation is that you cc yourself when sending messages to a mailing list from your Google@UH Gmail account. Since you are unable to receive copies of your own messages, another available option is to enable the ACK setting, which is an acknowledgement email from LISTSERV that your message was sent to X number of recipients. In addition, if your list has archives enabled, you can see if your message was posted to the list by checking the archives..

To change your current ACK settings, you may do the following:

A. Enable ACK in your subscription options

  1. Under Subscriber Options in the navigation pane on the left, select Subscriptions.
  2. Click on the name of the list you want to enable acknowledgements for.
  3. Click on the menu button along the right-side of the page (it should look like three horizontal lines stacked together). Then, click on Subscribe or Unsubscribe.
  4. In the Acknowledgements section, select Short Message Confirming Receipt. Then, click on Update Settings.

B. Enable ACK as default for new subscribers (List Owners Only)

  1. Under the List Management options in the navigation pane on the left, select List Configuration.
  2. Click on the Subscriptions tab.
  3. Select the list that you are modifying from the drop-down menu. Then, scroll down to Default-Options.
  4. Add the keyword ACK to the text field. If there are already other keywords listed as Default-Options, simply add a comma followed by the keyword ACK to the end. Then, click on Update.

C. Enable ACK for existing subscribers (List Owners Only)

  1. Under the List Management options in the navigation pane on the left, select Subscriber Reports.
  2. Select the list that you are modifying from the drop-down menu.
  3. Click on Customize Report and check Acknowledgements. Then, click on Update.
  4. Use the check boxes on the left to select specific subscribers (or click on Check All to select all subscribers) and, using the drop-down menu at the bottom of the Acknowledgements column, select Ack. Then, click Update.


How Do I Enable UTF-8 Compatible Headers in LISTSERV?
To designate UTF-8 as the character set for your list header, you may use the following instructions:
  1. Log into LISTSERV.
  2. Enable Expert Mode.
    1. Click on your email address in the top-right corner followed by Edit Profile.
    2. Select Expert Mode using the Mode drop-down menu and click on Save.
  3. Under List Management in the navigation pane on the left, select List Configuration.
  4. Click on Show All Keywords next to the Keyword search box.



  5. Scroll down through the resulting list of keywords and click on Misc-Options.


     
  6. Enter UTF8_HEADER in the Misc-Options= field. Then, click Update.

 


 

How Do I Set a Footer(Bottom Banner) in LISTSERV?

Bottom banner templates allow you to include a footer on each message sent to a list. The DEFAULT_BOTTOM_BANNER and DEFAULT_BOTTOM_BANNER_HTML templates provided include a link that subscribers can click on to easily unsubscribe from a list. An example is provided below.



To enable the banner, you will need to copy the contents of the DEFAULT_BOTTOM_BANNER and DEFAULT_BOTTOM_BANNER_HTML templates to the BOTTOM_BANNER and BOTTOM_BANNER_HTML templates respectively.

  1. Log into LISTSERV.
  2. Under the List Management options in the menu on the left, select Mail Templates. You may need to click on the > button in the top-left corner to unhide the menu.



  3. If you own more than one list, use the Select List drop-down menu to choose which list you would like to modify mail templates for. Then, using the Template Categories drop-down menu, choose Top and Bottom Banners and click Select.


     
  4. In the resulting list of available templates, click on DEFAULT_BOTTOM_BANNER.


     
  5. Copy all of the text in the Content field.
  6. Click on Back. Then, navigate to the BOTTOM_BANNER template.
  7. Paste the text copied in Step 5 into the Content field of the BOTTOM_BANNER template and click on Update.
  8. Repeat Steps 4 through 7 with DEFAULT_BOTTOM_BANNER_HTML instead of DEFAULT_BOTTOM_BANNER and BOTTOM_BANNER_HTML instead of BOTTOM_BANNER to edit the HTML versions of the templates.


 

How Do I Set a Mail Template in LISTSERV?

You can create or modify templates to customize informational messages from the LISTSERV processor. Mail templates do not modify the contents or style of mail sent to a list or through the newsletter feature.

Note: The following sections make use of a specialized template syntax. For more information on how to use template commands and variables, click on the ? in the top-right corner or visit the official LISTSERV documentation.

Setting a Pre-defined Template Style

  1. From the LISTSERV home page, click on Log In in the top-right corner and sign in using your email address and password.
  2. Under the List Management options in the menu on the left, select Mail Templates. You may need to click on the > button in the top-left corner to unhide the menu.
  3. If you own more than one list, use the Select List drop-down menu to choose which list you would like to set a template style for.
  4. Use the Template Style drop-down menu to select the desired style.



  5. To apply your chosen style use the Select button. Alternatively, you can use the Preview button to see how the style looks.
  6. You can test if the change was applied successfully by adding/removing a subscriber or performing any other command that generates an informational message from LISTSERV.

Modifying an Existing Mail Template

  1. From the LISTSERV home page, click on Log In in the top-right corner and sign in using your email address and password.
  2. Under the List Management options in the menu on the left, select Mail Templates. You may need to click on the > button in the top-left corner to unhide the menu.
  3. If you own more than one list, use the Select List drop-down menu to choose which list you would like to modify templates for.
  4. If the template you would like to modify is not already listed in the table below, use the Template Categories drop-down menu to select the appropriate type.
  5. Click on the name of the template you want to modify in the table at the bottom of the page.
  6. Make the desired changes in the Content text field. Then, click Update.

Creating a New Mail Template

  1. From the LISTSERV home page, click on Log In in the top-right corner and sign in using your email address and password.
  2. Under the List Management options in the menu on the left, select Mail Templates. You may need to click on the > button in the top-left corner to unhide the menu.
  3. If you own more than one list, use the Select List drop-down menu to choose which list you would like to create a new template for.
  4. Click on Create New Template.
  5. Enter a name and description for the new template in the Template Name and Template Description fields respectively. Then, click Create.
  6. Enter the desired text and template commands into the Content text field. Then, click Update.

 


 

How do I stop receiving messages from a LISTSERV list temporarily without being removed from it?

Send an email to listserv@lists.hawaii.edu with a blank subject line and the message body containing the SET command, the list name, and the NOMAIL option.

SET listname NOMAIL

You should receive a confirmation that your subscription settings were updated. To resume receiving mail for the list, send another email to listserv@lists.hawaii.edu with a blank subject line and the message body containing the following:

SET listname MAIL


 

Why doesn't my LISTSERV list deliver mail anymore? Or LISTSERV reports that the list is held?

This can happen if the list has exceeded its daily message threshold. By default, this value is set to 50. Once the daily threshold is met, the list will stop delivering emails until a free command is issued.

Freeing The List

A list owner will need to compose an email to listserv@lists.hawaii.edu with a blank subject line and the following text in the message body:

free listname

Note: Do not include "@lists.hawaii.edu" at the end of the listname

Alternately, the list owner can log into https://listserv.hawaii.edu, click on LISTSERV Command, select the relevant list from the drop-down menu, input the above command (i.e. free listname), and click on Submit.

Increasing the Daily-Threshold

In the event that this limit is frequently reached, the list owner may also consider increasing the Daily-Threshold value to prevent the list from being held again.

  1. Log in to https://listserv.hawaii.edu.
  2. Under the List Management options in the navigation pane on the left, select List Configuration.
  3. Click on the Subscriptions tab.
  4. Scroll down to Daily-Threshold and enter the desired value into the corresponding field.
  5. Click on Update.

 

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Article ID: 849
Created: Tue, 18 Sep 2007 2:53pm
Modified: Tue, 11 May 2021 2:40pm