Discussion Group FAQs

General Discussion Group Questions

What is MailMan?

MailMan is the software that manages the AYA discussion groups. Through MailMan, users can update their member options, subscribe, and unsubscribe through a single, easy-to-use Web site. Additionally, more advanced users can integrate HTML into their e-mail messages, allowing them to visually enhance their posts to the mailing lists. We welcome any comments or questions about the MailMan service.


What discussion groups are available?

The AYA has established discussion groups for the following constituencies:

Class Discussion Groups

Regional Discussion Groups

Professional School Discussion Groups

Grad School Discussion Groups

What is the cost for subscribing to a discussion group?

There is no charge for this service, however, you must have an e-mail account to subscribe.


What are some general guidelines for posting messages to discussion groups?

Please click here to see the etiquette page


How Do I...?

How do I subscribe to a mailing list?

To subscribe to a discussion group, please go to http://www.aya.yale.edu/content/listservs, select the appropriate group and then follow the instructions provided on the page.


How do I unsubscribe from a mailing list?

To unsubscribe from the discussion groups, go to the following Web site - http://ayalists.yale.edu/mailman/options/your-list-name/your-email-address - changing the text "your-list-name" to the name of your list and "your-email-address" to the e-mail address which is subscribed to the list. For example, if you are subscribed to the y1990-l list with the e-mail address johndoe@aya.yale.edu, you will want to go to http://ayalists.yale.edu/mailman/options/y1990-l/johndoe@aya.yale.edu

Once at the page, click the button labeled "Unsubscribe".

A confirmation e-mail message will then be sent to your e-mail address. In order to complete the unsubscribe process, you will need to open the confirmation e-mail message and follow the instructions it provides. This extra step is necessary to ensure that you are the person requesting that you be unsubscribed.


How do I send and receive messages?

To post a message to all discussion group members, send an e-mail message to listname@ayalists.yale.edu where "listname" is the name of your list.

To receive messages, you only need to subscribe to the discussion group from which you wish to receive messages.


How do I reply to a message?

If you would like to reply to the entire group, you will just hit the reply button in your e-mail software.

If you would like to reply with a personal message to the individual who sent the message, you will use the forward button in your e-mail software and send it to the e-mail address of the individual listed in the e-mail in the from: section.


How do I find my member options and what is available to change?

You can find your member options by going to http://ayalists.yale.edu/mailman/options/your-list-name/ your-email-address changing the text "your-list-name" to the name of your list and "your-email-address" to the e-mail address which is subscribed to the list. For example, if you are subscribed to the y1990-l list with the e-mail address johndoe@aya.yale.edu, you will want to go to http://ayalists.yale.edu/mailman/options/y1990-l/johndoe@aya.yale.edu

Once at the page, you will need to enter your password (which was sent with the confirmation e-mail which you received after subscribing) in order to log in and change your options (if you have forgotten your password, at the bottom of the page there is a button labeled "Remind" which you can click to have your password emailed to you).

Once you have logged in, you will have access to a number of options for all the lists to which you are subscribed, including:

  • Unsubscribe
  • Get your password
  • Change your password
  • Change your email address (can change globally)
  • Mail delivery - enable or disable
  • Set Digest Mode
  • Get MIME or Plain Text Digests?
  • Receive your own posts to the list?
  • Receive acknowledgement mail when you send mail to the list?
  • Get password reminder email for this list?
  • Conceal yourself from subscriber list?
  • Avoid duplicate copies of messages?

How do I subscribe to more than one discussion group?

You can subscribe to additional discussion groups the same way you subscribed to your first mailing list by going to: http://aya.yale.edu/content/listservs.


How do I send an attachment?

Because attachments can carry viruses, for the safety of users, attachments cannot be sent to mailing lists. Your message itself will still continue to the list, but the attachment will be deleted from the message. List subscribers may also receive your message with the following text:

(This warning was inserted by Yale University ITS Central Email Systems)

This message contains one or more attachments that are of a type that commonly carry malicious software such as viruses. To help prevent accidental virus infection, the attachment(s) were renamed as follows:

"extension.exe" was renamed to "extension.xex"

(End of inserted warning)

Please go to http://www.yale.edu/its/email/attachments/attrename.html for a detailed explanation of attachment renaming.


How do I send an HTML email?

To send an HTML e-mail, you can simply insert HTML code into the body of your message as if it were a Web site. If you would like to include any images in your message they must be linked to an external Web site (if you try to include your images as attachments, they will be deleted, as explained here).


How do I access a discussion group archive?

Go to http://ayalists.yale.edu/mailman/options/[YOUR LIST NAME] changing the text "your list name" to the name of your list. For example, if you want the archive for the y1990-l list, you would go to http://ayalists.yale.edu/mailman/options/y1990-l

Once at the page, you will see a link to the archives in the "About" section.

Please Note: Discussion Groups archives are only available to current group subscribers.


How do I retrieve my password?

To request your password, you will go to http://ayalists.yale.edu/mailman/options/[YOUR LIST NAME]  changing the text "your list name" to the name of your list. For example, if you want the password for the y1990-l list, you would go to http://ayalists.yale.edu/mailman/options/y1990-l. You will enter your email address where asked and then click on 'remind'.


Error messages

Why was my attachment renamed?

Please go to http://www.yale.edu/email/central/attrename.html for an explanation.


What does "message has implicit destination" mean?

This error message means that the address for the list was not found in the To: or CC: headers.
Typically this is due to one of a few reasons:

1) Your list has a different domain name (FQDN) than you think it does, or than was used as the target address of the message. See the second to last entry on the main list configuration page to ensure that you have this set properly.

2) The message was BCC'ed (blind carbon copied) to the list, and was actually not addressed to the list directly (not that you can see).

3) The message was addressed to more than 10 recipients

SPAM often has one or more of these characteristics, therefore MailMan does not accept messages with any of them in order to protect the mailing lists from potential SPAM.


 

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