Information for list operators

General information

The website https://www.lists.kit.edu/sympa is available for the administration of KIT mailing lists.
You can use this website to request new mailing lists, manage your mailing lists and subscribe to mailing lists or unsubscribe from mailing lists.
To use this website, you can log in with your KIT account or set a KIT mailing list server password that is assigned to your e-mail address.

Important: You must always log in with the exact e-mail address with which you are registered as the owner, moderator or subscriber of a list.
After logging in with your KIT account, you are logged in with the e-mail address that is set for your account in the KIT Identity Management System (IDM).
If this e-mail address does not match the e-mail address you use as the sender of e-mails, you must log in locally and send a password for this e-mail address.

Logging in

1. Go to the Sympa website
2. Log in with your KIT account or click on "Log in locally" (see information for list participants)

Apply for a new mailing list

Only KIT employees and students can apply for KIT mailing lists.

After logging in with your KIT account, the + Request list tab appears at the top. Click on it to go to the request page.

Select procedure

• Create a list using a template - suitable if you need a new, independent list.
• Copy an existing list - useful if you want to copy the configuration of an existing list.

Enter details (for "Create a list using a template")

1. List name
   • Short, unique and consisting only of the characters A-Z, 0-9 and hyphen.
   • Example: ag-bioinformatics → the list can then be accessed at ag-bioinformatics ∂does-not-exist.lists kit edu
   • When referring to an institution, a prefix is recommended (e.g. wiwi- for the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics).
2. List type (template)
   • Public discussion list - for discussion lists to which anyone can subscribe
   • Hotline list - for lists via which those responsible for a service can be reached
   • Newsletter - for pure information distribution.
   • Private workgroup - for closed discussion lists.
   • All parameters (who can write, subscribe, archive) can be changed later.
3. Subject
   • Short title describing the topic or purpose of the list.
4. Description
   • Text that is displayed on the start page of the mailing list.
   • At least one short sentence is required.

Copy list (for "Copy an existing list")

Attention: When copying, automatically included subscribers are also copied. In this case, please contact the listmaster in advance at listmaster ∂does-not-exist.lists kit edu to coordinate the procedure.

1. Select the source list from the drop-down menu.
2. Enter the new list name.
3. Click on Copy list configuration.
4. Then check and adjust the title and description of the new list.

Release

Regardless of the selected procedure, the newly requested list must be approved by a list master before it can be used.

Renaming a mailing list

• Log in with your KIT account and open the administration page of the list in question.
• There, click on the "Rename list" button.
• On the following page, enter the desired new list name and click on "Rename this list".

The list must then be released by a listmaster under the new name before the list can be used again.

Deleting a mailing list

• Log in with your KIT account and open the administration page of the list in question.
• There, click on the"Remove list" button.
• You will then be asked whether you really want to close the list.
  If you answer this question with OK, the list will be deactivated and permanently deleted after 14 days.

Tasks as list owner and moderator of a mailing list

1. What you can do as a list owner
   • Change configuration - adjust all list settings (e.g. access rights, archiving, moderation).
   • Manage subscribers - add new members or remove existing subscribers.
2. What you can do as a moderator (with moderation activated)
   • Approve posts - check incoming messages and approve them for the entire list.
   • Reject posts - prevent unwanted messages from being sent.

(The moderation rights must be explicitly activated in the list configuration. Only if no moderators are entered do the owners automatically have moderation rights).

How to access the administration interface

1. Overview of your lists
   • After logging in to the Sympa website, click on "My lists" .
   • You will be shown an overview of all lists for which you are a subscriber and/or owner.
2. Quick access
   • List subscribers - as the owner, you can see all current members via the "List subscribers" link.
   • Archives - use the "Archives" link to open the news archive of the respective list (if you have the authorization).
3. To the list page
   • Click on the list name. This will take you to the main page of the respective mailing list.
   • If you are the owner, the most important administration options are displayed on the main page (e.g. "Manage subscribers", "List configuration").
4. Administration menu
   • For a complete list of all available functions, click on "Administration" in the left-hand navigation area.

Changing the subject of a list

• Log in with your KIT account and open the administration page of the relevant list.
• Select the value"List definition" in the red bar under"Edit List Config" and click on it.
• On the following page, enter the desired text under"Subject of the list" and click on the"Apply modifications" button to activate the change.

Changing the visibility of a list

• Log in with your KIT account and open the administration page of the relevant list.
• In the red bar under"Edit List config", select the value"List definition" and click on it.
• Select the desired setting under"Visibility of the list" and click on the"Apply modifications" button to activate the change.

Available visibility options

Changing the description of a mailing list

• Log in with your KIT account and open the administration page of the relevant list.
• Select the value"List description/homepage" in the red bar under"Edit List Config" and click on it.
• On the following page, click on"Edit" to the left of"List description"
• In the window that opens, enter the desired text and click on the "Save" button.

This text will be displayed as a description on the main page of the mailing list by default and will also be sent to new list subscribers as part of the welcome email.
If you want to display a different text (e.g. in HTML format) on the main page of the mailing list, click on"Edit" to the left of"List homepage" and enter the desired text on this web page.

Displaying and editing mailing list owners and moderators

Manage owners

• Log in with your KIT account and open the administration page of the relevant list.
• Select the value "Owner" in the red bar under"Users" and click on it.
  Alternatively, click on"Modify owners or moderators" on the main page of the list to go to the same web page.
• Add owner
  • Enter the desired e-mail address in the "email address" field under "Add owners".
    Optionally, you can also enter the person's first name and surname here.
    Under "reception mode" , select whether this email address should receive the emails that are sent to the owners of the list (<list name>-request ∂does-not-exist.lists kit edu).
    Under "visibility", select whether the name or local part of this email address from the website should be displayed as the owner.
  • Click on"Update" to enter the email addresses as owners
• Remove owner
  • Place a tick in the small square to the right of the address to be removed
  • Click on "Apply modifications" and confirm in the dialog that appears that the selected owners should really be removed.

Note: According to the guidelines for the operation of mailing lists, at least one KIT e-mail address must always be entered as the owner.

Manage moderators

The procedure for adding and removing moderators is identical to managing owners.
Select the value "Moderators" in the red bar under"Users" and click on it to go to the website with the moderators.

Note: If no moderators are entered, all owners automatically have moderator authorization.
As soon as at least one moderator is entered, only these e-mail addresses have moderator authorization.

Display & edit subscribers of a mailing list

• Log in with your KIT account and open the administration page of the relevant list.
• Select the value"Subscribers" in the red bar under"Users" and click on it.
  Alternatively, click on"View the list of subscribers" on the main page of the list to go to the same website.

Add a single e-mail address

• Enter the desired e-mail address in the "Add subscribers" field
• Optional: Check the box "Quiet (don't send welcome message)" if no automatic information mail should be sent.
• Click on the"Add" button to enter the e-mail address in the list

Add several e-mail addresses at the same time

• Click on the"Multiple add" button.
• In the next form, enter each e-mail address in a separate line or insert it using cut + paste
• Optional: Check the box "quiet" if you do not want an automatic information email to be sent.
• Click on the"Add subscribers" button to add the email addresses to the list

Important: Subscribers are added without confirmation by the recipients. Make sure that the persons concerned have given their consent.
If you add the subscribers to the list silently, you must ensure that the users are informed of the entry by other means.

Remove e-mail addresses

• Check the box to the left of the email addresses to be deleted (individually or several at once)
• Click on the"Delete selected email addresses" button at the bottom of the page

Edit entry

• Click on the e-mail address to be changed
• On the following page you can
  • the address itself
  • the associated name
  • the reception mode
  • the visibility of this e-mail address
    customize
• Click on"Apply modifications" to save the change.

Archiving emails from a mailing list

Default setting

When setting up a new mailing list (from a template), the archiving of sent messages is already activated.

Changing archiving parameters

• Log in with your KIT account and open the administration page of the relevant list.
• Select the value "Archive" in the red bar under"Edit List Config" and click on it.

Switch archiving on or off

• Under "Store distributed messages into archive", select the value "enabled" or "disabled" and click on the"Apply modifications" button to activate the change.

Adjust access rights

• Select a value under "Archives -> Access right" and click on the "Apply modifications" button to activate the change.
  The default value "subscribers only" means that only subscribers can access the website with the archive of the list and is a sensible setting in most cases.

Note on security
The archive should not be publicly accessible, as otherwise all contents of the mailing list can be viewed by anyone.
If you deliberately make the archive public, explicitly inform all potential senders that their messages will be publicly visible.

Deleting subscribers with delivery errors

Why deleting addresses with delivery errors is important

• Protect reputation: Undeliverable addresses degrade the reputation of KIT mail servers.
• Reduce the risk of spam: If the reputation drops, the system can be classified as a spam sender - the recipient servers then reject all list messages.

Display delivery errors

• Log in with your KIT account and open the administration page of the relevant list.
• Click on"Bounces" in the red bar.
• On the page displayed, you can see for each address:
  • Number of delivery errors
  • the period in which the errors occurred
  • the current value for the Bounce score (see section 4).

Display the last delivery error for an e-mail address

• Click on the affected e-mail address
• At the bottom of the next page, click on"View last bounce"
• There you will see details (error message, time, type of error).

Manually removing e-mail addresses from the list

• Check the box to the left of the desired e-mail addresses (individually or several at the same time)
• Click on the "Delete selected email addresses" button at the bottom of the page and confirm on the next page that you wish to delete the selected e-mail addresses

Automatic deletion mechanism

Sympa assigns a point value (delivery error code) to each e-mail address that is repeatedly undeliverable.
The calculation of this value depends on the number and type of delivery errors. The higher this value is, the higher the probability that the e-mail address is no longer functional and should be removed from the list

Configuration of the automatic deletion mechanism

• Log in with your KIT account and open the administration page of the relevant list.
• Select the value"Bounces" in the red bar under"Edit List Config" and click on it.
• There are two levels (stages) for each of which you can define an action and a limit value.
• Adjustment of the limit values:
  • High delivery rate (many emails/month): the default values (45 / 75) are useful.
  • Low sending rate (few emails/month): select lower thresholds, e.g. 8 points for the 1st level and 12 points for the 2nd level.
• Actions when the thresholds are reached
  • Default value for the 1st level"send notification to user with delivery errors":
    The affected user and list owners are informed that the email address may be removed from the list.
  • Default value for the 2nd level"remove users with delivery errors":
    The affected user will be removed from the list and the list owners will be informed.
    You should not change these actions, as otherwise you will have to remove the e-mail addresses that can no longer be reached manually on a regular basis.

Defining the sending authorization

• Log in with your KIT account and open the administration page of the relevant list.
• In the red bar under"Edit List Config", select the value"Sending/receiving setup" and click on it.
  Alternatively, click on "Change who can post to the list" on the main page of the list to access the same web page.
• Various options are available in the "Who can send messages" field. The most common options are
  • Public list - Anyone can post, spam flags are ignored.
  • Öffentliche Liste, Spam-Mails leise an Moderatoren - Anyone can write; messages for which the central spam filter has set the X spam flag to "yes" are silently forwarded to the moderators for approval.
  • Restricted to subscribers - Only e-mail addresses entered in the list may post.
  • Private, moderated for non-subscribers - Subscribers write directly; the emails of all other senders are forwarded to the moderators for approval.
  • Moderated - Only moderators write directly; all other e-mails are forwarded to the moderators for approval.
  • Newsletter, restricted to moderators - Only moderators are allowed to write; all other messages are rejected.
    There are also further options with special procedures regarding feedback to senders, further write authorizations for certain groups of people and confirmation requests to the senders.
    If no scenario from the selection list meets your requirements, special scenarios can be configured for individual lists. In this case, please contact us with your requirements.
• To change the value for this parameter, select a value from the selection list and click on "Apply modifications" at the bottom of the page.

Assigning send authorizations via address lists

The KIT mailing list server also provides three special address lists with which you can granularly control write permissions:

Address list	Purpose
Blocked senders	Prevents the registered addresses from sending messages to the list at all.
Moderated senders	Emails from these addresses are always forwarded to the moderators for approval.
Allowed senders	Enables write permissions for individual email addresses that are not subscribers to the list (useful if the general send permission is set to "restricted to subscribers").

Making entries in these lists

• Log in with your KIT account and open the administration page of the relevant list.
• Select the desired address list in the red bar under "Sender lists" - "Blocked senders", "Moderated senders" or "Allowed senders"
• Enter the e-mail address(es) in the selected list and click on the "save" button at the bottom of the page

Priority of the lists

If an address appears in several lists, the following order applies (highest priority first):

1. Blocked senders
2. Moderated senders
3. Allowed senders

All three address lists have a higher priority than the setting under "Who can send messages" in the "Settings for sending/receiving".

Note:

The "Allowed senders" and "Moderated senders" lists are currently provided via a Sympa plug-in and are not part of the official core setup.
This results in two practical limitations:

1. Navigation: after adding entries to these lists, you must return to the administration page again for the horizontal navigation bar to display correctly again.
2. Feedback: For addresses that are in the "Allowed senders" list, no automatic confirmation of receipt is generated when their message is distributed via the mailing list.

Moderation of a mailing list

If a message is sent to a moderated list, all moderators with the receive mode set to "Receive notification email" will automatically receive a mail.
This moderation mail contains the original message as an attachment, if it has not been marked as spam, and also the sender's e-mail address

Moderation by e-mail

• You can read the original message in the e-mail attachment.
• To forward the e-mail to the list, click on the forward link in the moderation e-mail - this will open an e-mail window that has already been filled in, which you only need to send.
• To reject the e-mail, click on the reject link in the moderation e-mail - this will also open an e-mail window that has already been filled out and which you only need to send.

Note:
If another moderator has already approved or rejected the message, you will receive an e-mail informing you that the action is no longer possible and that the message may have already been sent.

• As the moderator of a list, you can view the messages awaiting approval on the list's moderation page.
  You will also find the link to this website in the moderation email
  Alternatively, you can access the same page from the main page of the list via the left-hand navigation bar "Moderate → Message".
• On the moderation page, you will see a list of the messages to be moderated.
• In this list, click on the eye on the left to display the full content of a message.
• Place a tick in front of the desired message.
• Then select one of the two actions:
  • "Distribute selected e-mail " - Release message.
  • "Reject selected e-mail " - Reject message.
    When rejecting, you can decide whether the sender should receive a rejection notification.
    Recommendation: Do not send a notification for clear spam; a brief explanation may be useful for legitimate senders.

Passive moderators

Sometimes a user should have moderator rights but not receive moderation emails (e.g. a person with write permission who should not actively moderate).
To do this, set the reception mode for the moderator in question to "No notifications" on the website with the moderators (see "Displaying and editing owners and moderators of a mailing list" above)

Optimize e-mail deliverability: Activate DMARC protection

To ensure that emails are reliably delivered to all subscribers on a list, we recommend setting the "Protection modes" parameter under "DMARC protection" to "all" for existing lists.
This will:

• the from address of the original sender is replaced by the list address.
• a valid DKIM signature is added for the @listserv.dfn.de domain.

Advantages:

1. Better deliverability: mail servers no longer block emails that originate from external senders but contain an internal email address.
2. DKIM signature: Many mail servers only accept emails with a valid DKIM signature. Without this, emails could be rejected or moved to quarantine.

How to configure DMARC protection:

1. Log in with your KIT account and open the administration page of the relevant list.
2. Under "Edit list configuration" (in the red bar), click on "DKIM/DMARC/ARC".
3. Under "DMARC protection" -> "Protection modes", select the value "all" and click on "Apply modifications" at the bottom of the page.

Notes:

• The Reply-To address remains unchanged. For lists with "From address" as reply-to address, replies are still sent to the original sender.
• Warning messages may appear for digitally signed emails as the sender and signer data do not match.
• It is no longer possible to reply to the sender and the list address at the same time by clicking on "Reply to all" in Outlook.

For new lists:
This setting is the default for newly created lists based on templates. For lists that are created by copying existing lists, the value of the original list is adopted.

 

Adding a footer to the emails of a mailing list

Note:
The Sympa mailing list server only adds footers to unsigned messages.
Adding a footer to a signed mail would invalidate the signature.

Setting up a footer

• Log in with your KIT account and open the administration page of the relevant list.
• Select the value "Message templates" in the red bar under"Edit List Config" and click on it.
• On the following page, click on"Edit" to the left of "Message footer"
• In the window that opens, enter the desired text and click on the"Save" button.

Personalized unsubscribe link

To provide each recipient with a personalized "unsubscribe link", insert the following line into the footer text, for example:

To unsubscribe from this list, please click here: [% wwsympa_url %]/auto_signoff/[% listname %]?email=[% user.email | uri %]

Prerequisites: Message personalization must be activated for the list.
To activate personalization:

1. On the administration page → "Edit List Config" → "Sending/receiving setup".
2. Under "Allow message personalization", select the "Enabled" option and click "Apply modifications" at the bottom of the page.
3. In the "Message personalization" section, select the value "Headers and footers" under "Scope for messages from incoming mail".

Note:
By default, the footer is attached as a MIME attachment.
In some clients (e.g. Outlook), it therefore does not appear at the end of the actual text, but in the attachment.

To attach the footer directly to the text, proceed as follows:

1. On the administration page → "Edit List Config" → "Sending/receiving setup".
2. Under "Attachment type", select the option "Attach to message text" and click on "Apply modifications" at the bottom of the page.

Note:This setting only works reliably for messages in plain/text format. The result may vary for HTML emails.

Sending encrypted emails via a mailing list

Basic principle

• For S/MIME encryption, everyone involved (sender, recipient and the mailing list address) must have a valid S/MIME certificate.
• The recipient's public key is used for encryption; the server must therefore know the public key of each list participant.

Requirements on the KIT mailing list server

1. The list address has an S/MIME certificate.
2. All subscribers also have an S/MIME certificate, which is already available to the server as a public key.

• Alternative manual integration of the certificate

1. Download certificate
   • On the main page of the respective list, click on "Download certificate" in the left-hand navigation bar to download the certificate.
   • Newly registered subscribers will also receive the certificate in their welcome email.
2. Integrate the certificate in the e-mail client
   • Outlook: File → Options → Trust Center → Email Security Settings → Import → Select the downloaded PEM/PFX file.
   • Thunderbird: Settings → Privacy & Security → Certificates → Manage certificates → Import → Select file.

Further details on installing S/MIME certificates can be found on the website of theKIT-Certificate Authority (KIT-CA).

How the encryption works

• As soon as you send an encrypted message to the list, Sympa encrypts the mail individually for each recipient with the respective public key.
• Only subscribers whose current (non-expired) certificate is already known to the server will receive the message.

What to do if your certificate is not yet known?

1. Send a signed test e-mail
   • Send a signed e-mail to the e-mail address zertifikat ∂does-not-exist.lists kit edu
   • The server will save your public key.
2. If the certificate has expired
   • The server automatically removes expired keys. You must request a new certificate and send another signed e-mail to zertifikat ∂does-not-exist.lists kit edu so that the new key is entered.
3. Error message
   • If the certificate is unknown or expired, you will receive a notification that the encrypted mail could not be delivered and you will be asked to send a signed mail to zertifikat ∂does-not-exist.lists kit edu.

Increasing the maximum message size

The default limit for sending messages via a mailing list is 5 MB.
If this value is not sufficient for your purposes, please contact the list owner at listmaster∂lists.kit.edu.
We will be happy to increase the limit as required - especially if the list has only a few members.

Including sublists

If you would like to merge the subscribers of one list into another mailing list, the second list can be entered as a sublist of the first.

Advantages

• The subscribers of the sub-list are automatically transferred to the parent list - there is no duplication.
• They receive the same authorizations (e.g. write authorization) as all other subscribers of the parent list.
• As the list owner, you can see the source of each e-mail address on the web page with the subscribers.
• This ensures that there are no loops - this can happen if a mailing list address is entered as a subscriber to another mailing list

Procedure

• For data protection reasons, this entry can only be made by a listmaster - otherwise owners could include any lists as sub-lists and thus view their subscribers and add them to the list against their will
  The listmaster checks that both an owner of the parent list and an owner of the sublist agree to the inclusion
• Please contact listmaster∂lists.kit.eduif you would like to include emails from a subordinate list.

After approval, you will find an overview of which sublists are included in your list under "Edit list configuration → Configuration of data sources → List integration".
Conversely, the owners of a sublist can see on the administration page which parent lists the list is included in by clicking on the blue "Show lists that include <list name>" button.

Automatic inclusion of list members from external data sources

Sympa mailing lists can include email addresses from external data sources - for example, from a file that can be accessed via a URL or from an LDAP or SQL query.

Automatic integration of students in mailing lists

Basic principle

Students may only be automatically added to mailing lists if the list contains exclusively study-related information.

Prerequisites

Procedure

1. Request - Send your request to listmaster∂lists.kit.edu.
2. Setup - The listmaster sets up the automated integration of students based on the filter rule specified by the list owner.
3. Control - The list owner monitors that only study-related messages are sent.
4. Deprovisioning - As soon as a student no longer meets the requirements (e.g. enrolment), their address is automatically removed from the list.