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Using Mailing Lists

Creating A Mailing List

The mailing list functionality described below is only available to customers with a custom domain name. This feature is not available to users with an @daystar.io email address.

Configuring a mailing list requires domain administrator access. This tutorial assumes that such access has already been granted.

Setting up a new mailing list

  1. Log into the Admin Panel at email.compassfoundation.io.
  2. From the top menu, click +Add > Mailing List
  3. If applicable, select the domain where this mailing list should be added to, then create the email address for this mailing list.
    • For example, enter newsletter in this field to make the mailing list address be newsletter@your-domain.com.) This is also the address to which subscribe/unsubscribe requests will come. (The mailing list software—Mailing List Management Made Joyful (MLMMJ)—will handle these requests automatically)
  4. While most of the default settings are fine, there are two settings that should be adjusted.
    • Review the available options under Who can send email to this list. For most use cases, selecting Users under same domain is a good choice.

    Leaving this option set to Unrestricted will allow any email account in the world to broadcast a message to all subscribers of this mailing list simply by sending an email to mailing-list-name@your-domain.com. This is only desirable when running a public mailing list, say, for software development and questions. Nearly all mailing lists should restrict this setting in some way.

  • It is also recommended to enable the Notify owner(s) when someone subscribes to or unsubscribes from the mailing list option in the Notifications section.

  1. After configuring the mailing list settings, click Add at the bottom the page to save the mailing list.

  2. On the next screen, click Add new members, then enter the address for each subscriber, one email address per line.

    • If an existing mailing list is being migrated to iRedMail and the recipients have already agreed to receive emails from the sender, uncheck the option to Send email to new members for subscription confirm. Subscribers do not need notified that your choice of mailing list software has changed, and asking them to re-confirm their subscription may cause confusion.

    • If this is a new mailing list with users who have not received emails from this sender, leave this option enabled to lower the risk of unwanted recipients reporting your newsletter as spam. When the Send email to new members... option is selected, the mailing list software will send an automated message to each subscriber, asking them to confirm their mailing list subscription. MLMMJ automatically handles this process; the mailing list owner does not need to do anything.

List Moderation

Most users will want to moderate their subscription list and approve new subscription requests. To manage this setting:

  1. Open the desired mailing list and select the Owners and Moderators tab.
  2. Set the mailing list owner. Additional moderators can also be specified in the Moderators section. If subscription moderation is desirable, tick the checkbox for Moderate subscriptions, and specify the moderator(s).

Automated Subscriptions

As outlined at the beginning of this tutorial, users can be added manually by the domain admin in the iRedAdmin panel. However, subscriptions can also be handled automatically via email.

  1. To subscribe to a mailing list, a user can simply send an email to the mailing list, adding a +subscribe to the email address of the mailing list. For example, to subscribe to the mailing list newsletter@example.com, we would send an email to newsletter+subscribe@example.com.

  2. After receiving the subscription request, the mailing list manager will reply with an alert email asking you to confirm the subscription request. Simply reply to this confirmation email to complete your subscription to the mailing list.

If moderator approval is enabled for the mailing list, the user will receive an Awaiting permission to join email reply.
The moderator(s) will be alerted via email of a pending subscription. The subscription can be confirmed by replying to the email alert, or declined by simply ignoring the alert email.
If the request is approved, the subscriber will receive a welcome email stating that their subscription is confirmed.

Unsubscribing

Users can unsubscribe from a mailing list at any time by sending an email to name-of-mailing-list+unsubscribe@your-domain.com. The user will receive an automated reply email, asking them to confirm their unsubscribe request. Replying to this alert email will complete the unsubscription process.

Domain administrators can also manage mailing list subscriptions and unsubscriptions as desired from the Admin Panel.

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