Frequently Asked Questions: Managing Listserv Mailing Lists

How do I register a Listserv password?

If you are a list owner, you will need to register your list owner e-mail address and a password in order to manage your list. Subscribers will need to register their e-mail addresses if they want to view the list archives or update their subscriber settings.

The e-mail address you register must match the address configured as list owner or subscriber exactly.

  1. Go to the Listserv web interface.
  2. Click the "Get Password" link.
  3. The screen will say "Register LISTSERV Password." Enter your e-mail address in the first field. Select a password for your LISTSERV account and enter it in the next two fields.
  4. Click the "Register Password" button.
  5. Follow the instructions on the next screen. A confirmation notice will be e-mailed to the address you registered. Click on the web address in this e-mail to activate your password. (If you cannot click the link, follow the instructions in the e-mail message.)
  6. The next screen should indicate your new password was registered successfully.

Your e-mail address and password are now registered and you can now log in to the web interface.

How do I add a subscriber to my list?

  1. Log in to the Listserv web interface with your list owner e-mail address and password.
  2. Click the "List Management" menu at the top left of the page and select "Subscriber Management."
  3. Select your list from the drop-down menu. The screen should now say "Subscriber Management" with the selected list name in parenthesis.
  4. You will see two tabs, "Single Subscriber" and "Bulk Operations." The tab labeled "Single Subscriber" should be in front. If not, click on it.
  5. In the bottom section labeled "Add New Subscriber," fill in the complete e-mail address and name of the subscriber you wish to add.
  6. If you do not want the new subscriber to receive an email that he/she was added to your list, select "Do Not Notify the User"
  7. Click the Add button.

How do I remove a subscriber from my list?

  1. Log in to the Listserv web interface with your list owner e-mail address and password.
  2. Click the "List Management" menu at the top left of the page and select "Subscriber Management."
  3. Select your list from the drop-down menu. The screen should now say "Subscriber Management" with the selected list name in parentheses.
  4. You will see two tabs, "Single Subscriber" and "Bulk Operations." The tab labeled "Single Subscriber" should be in front. If not, click on it.
  5. In the top section labeled "Examine or Delete Subscriptions," fill in the partial or complete e-mail address you wish to delete. Click on the Search button.
  6. If the e-mail address is found, that entry will be displayed. Click on Delete at the bottom of the screen.

If you entered a partial e-mail address and more than one entry was found that matched your search, click on the specific e-mail address you wish to delete and then click on Delete.

If you are deleting this address because of a mail rejection, you should select "Do Not Notify the User" before clicking Delete.

How do I get a list of subscribers in alphabetical order?

  1. Log in to the Listserv web interface with your list owner e-mail address and password.
  2. Click the "List Management" menu at the top left of the page and select "Subscriber Management."
  3. Select your list from the drop-down menu. The screen should now say "Subscriber Management" with the selected list name in parenthesis.
  4. At the bottom of the screen, there is a line entitled "Review List Members." Click the "In Browser" link to view the list on-screen or the "By Email" link to have the sorted list e-mailed to you.

How do I add multiple subscribers to my Listserv list at once?

To bulk load a Listserv list, create a plain text file with one e-mail address and name on each line. The file should be in the form:

  smithj@xxx.ua.edu Joe Smith
  jonesd@ua.edu Dave Jones
  robertsp@xxx.com Paul Roberts

There only needs to be one space between the e-mail address and the name, and the subscriber's name is optional. (Although you may find that including subscribers' names helps you maintain your list.) If your list is contained in an Excel spreadsheet or a Word document you must save that file as a plain text file (*.txt).

After you have saved the list of subscribers in a plain text file:

  1. Log in to the Listserv web interface with your list owner e-mail address and password.
  2. Click the "List Management" menu at the top left of the page and select "Subscriber Management."
  3. Select your list from the drop-down menu. The screen should now say "Subscriber Management" with the selected list name in parenthesis.
  4. You will see two tabs, "Single Subscriber" and "Bulk Operations." Click on Bulk Operations.
  5. There are four functions listed. Select one of the first two:
    • If you know that your mailing list has no subscribers, or if you want to add additional subscribers, select "Add" (the first function).
    • If you want to replace all of the current subscribers with those in your text file, select "Remove all subscribers ... add" (the second function).
  6. Click the Browse button, locate the text file of subscribers you created, and then click Import.

Listserv will report how many subscribers were removed, how many were added, and how many entries resulted in an error.

How do I manage the list owners of my Listserv list?

In order to modify the list owners of a Listserv list, you must also be a list owner. This allows you to access the list header.

The e-mail address you log in with must match the address configured as the list owner exactly.

  1. Log in to the Listserv web interface with your list owner e-mail address and password. If you have not previously logged into the web interface, see "How do I register a Listserv password?"
  2. Click the "List Management" menu at the top left of the page, select "List Configuration Management", and then select "List Configuration Tasks."
  3. Select your list from the drop-down menu. The screen should now say "List Configuration" with the selected list name in parentheses.
  4. Under the tab labeled Administrators, the first section is for specifying list owners. Add/Remove/Update your list owners in the space provided, one per line. Quiet owners do not receive error notifications and other adminstrative e-mails from Listserv.
  5. After updating your list owners, click on Submit.

The list owners for your list are now updated.

Why did I receive a rejection message saying my list was held when I tried to send an e-mail to my list?

A few things will cause a list to be held:

  • A list owner issued a HOLD command for that list
  • The list exceeded the daily number of postings (if the list was configured with a limit)
  • An error occurred and Listserv held the list to terminate a mailing loop

To free a list that has been held:

  1. Log in to the Listserv web interface with your list owner e-mail address and password.
  2. Click the "List Management" menu at the top left of the page and select "LISTSERV Command."
  3. In the field labeled "New Command," type free LISTNAME (where LISTNAME is the name of the held list).
  4. Click the "Enter Command" button.