Ownership and purpose

In accordance with University of California systemwide policies and procedures governing the use of electronic communication, a listserv must:

Serve the mission of UCSF
Not violate the UC Electronic Communications Policy
Be owned by at least one current UCSF faculty or staff member

Student-owned listservs require sponsorship by a current faculty or staff member.

For more information, see:

UCSF Mission Statement
UC Electronic Communications Policy (Sections III-C and III-D)

Owner responsibilities

Listserv owners are responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of each listserv they own. Owners of automated listservs, which have the subscriber list automatically generated from Campus Locator System (CLS) information, are not able to maintain the listserv and subscriber information directly. However, the owners are still responsible for maintaining their listservs.

Important: When problems or issues arise, the reduced functionality of one listserv may adversely affect the functionality of all the listservs on the server. Because of this risk, listserv owners are required to maintain the subscriber list for each listserv owned. This includes, but is not limited to, updating or removing invalid subscriber addresses when notified of them via the Listserv Daily Error Monitoring reports sent out by the server.

Listserv owners are required to:

Maintain the owner and editor information for each listserv owned. This includes, but is not limited to, making sure the list has at least one owner who is a current UCSF faculty member, staff member or student and is listed with a current UCSF email address.

Leave the Send=Confirm feature in place, requiring that all postings be confirmed by the sender before being released to the listserv subscribers.

Leave the Auto-Delete feature in place, which will automatically remove a subscriber with an invalid address if that address generates 20 or more error notices within a 30-day period. The owner may adjust this feature to reduce the number of error notices or reduce the period of time covered by this feature, but these parameters may not be increased.

Notify the IT Service Desk when a listserv is no longer needed and should be removed from the server.

Contact the IT Service Desk to report:

Changes in listserv ownership or editor information
Invalid subscriber address information

Naming convention

The name of a listserv:

Must have a minimum of three characters and a maximum of 14 characters
May be alphanumeric
May contain dashes ( - ) or underscores ( _ )
May not contain (1) spaces between characters or (2) any other special characters (e.g., &, *, #)

Description

The description of a listserv:

Must have no fewer than three characters and no more than 55 characters
May be alphanumeric
May contain spaces between characters as well as special characters ( e.g., -, _, &, *)

Activity

To be considered active, a listserv must:

Have a valid owner email address
Have a valid main editor email address, for those listservs with editors
Receive one or more valid (non-spam) postings within any 12-month period

Archives

Listservs set up to archive:

May have archives only for the current calendar year and the two prior calendar years
- Exceptions will be made for Administrative and Computing listservs.
May not have an archive index larger than 18MB
May have archived postings removed from the server at any time if a posting or index size adversely affects server function
May, at the request of the owner, have removed archives transferred to a CD and campus-mailed to the owner

If a listserv ceases to meet one or more of these requirements, the files for that listserv may be altered or deleted from the server.

The Listserv Administrator will make every attempt to contact the current listserv owner(s) prior to changing or deleting a listserv. However, if an issue with a listserv adversely affects other customers’ use of the service, immediate action will be taken.

Once service is restored, the List Administrator will attempt to contact the listserv owner(s).

Review the subscriber list for your listserv

If you're a listserv owner and would like to review the configuration information of your listserv and see a list of all the subscribers, you may send an email with no subject to listserv@listsrv.ucsf.edu with the single-line message: review listname.

The file that will be sent to you can be viewed, saved or printed, but this file cannot be used to edit or update your listserv. It is intended only to provide you with the list information.

Manage your listserv via the web

You may use the listserv's WWW interface by going to https://listsrv.ucsf.edu/cgi-bin/wa?OWNER. This will take you to the listserv management login page.

If this is your first time managing a listserv via the web, or if you've forgotten your previously established password, you will need to click on the get a new LISTSERV password link, which will take you to the Register LISTSERV password page.

Fill in the information requested, keeping in mind that you will use this password to manage all your listservs, provided that the email address you enter is the same as an owner email address in your listserv header.

Once you've requested a listserv password, an email will be sent to the address you provided. Follow the instructions in the email to verify your login and password.

Navigation tips for the list management web interface

Upon login, you will be brought to the List Management dashboard. The default setting for this page is Tutorial Mode. You can switch this and other settings at any time by clicking on the Preferences link located in the top right corner.

As an owner, you can customize many of the tables within the web interface. First, select the listserv you want to manage from the Select List box, then click the Update button to the right. The selected listserv name will appear in parentheses ( ) next to the List Management Dashboard heading. This lets you know which list you are managing.

Use the Technical Support window to report questions or problems to the UCSF Listserv administrators within UCSF ITS.

Listserv v16.0 has a lot of great features. Be sure to explore them all.

Bulk-uploading subscribers

From your dashboard, when you log into the listserv web user interface:

Go to the List Management menu.
Select Subscriber Management.
Select the listserv you wish to manage from the Select List drop-down menu.
Click on the Bulk Operations tab, where you can import your subscribers from a .csv file.

Your .csv file should have:

No title row
All your subscribers in a single column
One subscriber per cell
The cell contents entered as email address (First Last);
for example, David.Demoacct@ucsf.edu (David Demoacct).

Manage my listserv via email

You can manage your listserv by issuing commands via email to the listserv server. Below are some basic instructions for using this email method.

Review your listserv information

If you're a listserv owner and would like to review the configuration information of your listserv and see a list of all the subscribers, you may send an email with no subject to listserv@listsrv.ucsf.edu with the single-line message: review listname.

The file that will be sent to you can be viewed, saved or printed, but this file cannot be used to edit or update your listserv. It is intended only to provide you with the list information.

Edit your listserv configuration

For information on editing or updating your listserv's configuration information (i.e., owner, subscription type, editor) via email, go to the vendor's site: List Owner's Manual.

Adding and deleting your listserv subscribers

Adding users to the list:
- To add one user, or a group of users at one time, send an email with no subject to: listserv@listsrv.ucsf.edu
- The message will include one line for each person to be added. The format for each line is: add listname emailaddress firstname lastname
Deleting users from the list:
- To delete one user, or a group of users at one time, send an email with no subject to: listserv@listsrv.ucsf.edu
- The message will include one line for each person to be deleted; the format for each line is: delete listname emailaddress

You can have both adds and deletes in the same email message if you prefer.

Examples:

add listname tomj@itsa.ucsf.edu Tom Jones
add listname jcool@itsa.ucsf.edu Joe Cool
delete listname jmsmith@itsa.ucsf.edu

Suppressing subscriber notice of being added or deleted

Inserting the command word quiet before any listserv command that you issue on behalf of a subscriber causes listserv to suppress any notification to the subscriber of the changes made.

This is particularly helpful when (1) deleting subscribers whose email accounts have expired or (2) adding new subscribers when you do not want them to receive a notification that they've been added.

Examples:

quiet add listname tomj@itsa.ucsf.edu Tom Jones
quiet delete listname jmsmith@itsa.ucsf.e

Managing an open-subscription list

If your list is set up with an open subscription, which allows people to subscribe and unsubscribe themselves, you can inform potential or current subscribers of the following subscribing and unsubscribing information:

To subscribe to an open listserv, send a single-line email message from the address that you want added to the subscription list.

Send the email, with no subject, to: listserv@listsrv.ucsf.edu.

The single-line message should be: subscribe listname firstname lastname

The server will pull your email address from the FROM field of your email.

To unsubscribe from an open listserv, send a single-line email message from the address that you want removed from the subscription list.

Send the email, with no subject, to: listserv@listsrv.ucsf.edu.

The single-line message should be: signoff listname

The server will pull your email address from the FROM field of your email.

NOTE: This command will only work when sent from the email address that you want removed from the subscription list. If the person in question has left the University, or the email address has been turned off, only the owner of the listserv can remove the address from the subscription list.

Additional listserv information and instructions

Vendor site: L-soft

Assistance

For assistance managing listservs and subscriber lists; to report a problem or issue with a listserv; or for additional information regarding listservs, contact the IT Service Desk:

Submit a request online: http://help.ucsf.edu/
Email: ITServiceDesk@ucsf.edu
Phone: 415-514-4100