• Introduction

• What is Sympa?

• What are List Owners?

• For What Are Lists Used?

• Creating and Setting up a Mailing List

  • Filling out the request form

  • Adding Subscribers to a New List

• List Administration

  • Check List Data Sources

  • Subscribing Users

  • Unsubscribing Users

  • Seeing Who is Subscribed

  • Blocklist Management

  • Managing Authorized Posters

  • "List of Lists" Special Note

  • Sending Commands via Email

Introduction

This document is intended for owners and prospective owners of Sympa mailing lists at Harvard Business School. Details on how to use Sympa to inquire about, add yourself to or remove yourself from mailing lists are given in the user guide.

What is Sympa?

Sympa is a widely used modern mailing list management program that HBS has chosen to replace our use of the outdated Majordomo program. Sympa is an open source mailing list manager that provides advanced features with a rich and secure web interface. It is maintained by a world-wide developer community, and underwritten by the EU.
Note: If you Google "Sympa" you will find two different results. This is NOT the .com HR software.

What are List Owners?

Every list created must have one or more list owner(s). The owner(s) of an HBS list must be a member of the HBS community who has an HBS.EDU email account that allows for Duo security authorization and their HBS email address is used as list-owner address.

List owners are responsible for administration and proper use of their lists. All error messages generated by activity on the list are forwarded to the list owner. List owners have the power to add and remove list members, whatever the membership policy of the list.

List owners must have a personal HBS.EDU account which functions with CAS/Duo login security because all subscriber maintenance is performed using the Sympa web interface which is secured by CAS/Duo. Unlike previously in Majordomo, there are no list passwords - anyone who is tasked to update a list's subscribers must be a list owner.

For What Are Lists Used?

The main use of lists is to allow distribution of email to a group of people with a common purpose or interest. Lists may be used to facilitate discussion among the subscribers, or may be set up solely to allow distribution of materials from the owner or other authorized posters to the subscribers.

Sympa lists are only one of several email distribution tools available the the HBS community, and may not be the best choice depending on the list's usage needs. For example, Sympa is NOT good for

• Sending attachments with your email message, or highly formatted messages.
• Setting up Exchange meetings - inviting the list to a meeting does not provide correct updates if the meeting time/information subsequently changes.

• "HBS Email List - What Tool When? Guide" to understand the pros and cons of each email distribution tool.
• Policies For Creating and Using Sympa Lists to understand allowed uses and limitations.

Creating and Setting Up a Sympa mailing list

To request list creation fill out the List Request Form at this link.
Note: only requests from HBS Faculty and Staff are accepted via this form. Students must contact TSS for Sympa list requests.

You will need the following information to fill out the List Request Form:

1. Requested List Name.
   Choose a short yet descriptive name, lower case, only letters and numbers, no spaces but may use underscore (example: "harvard_trees" not "trees_in_the_Harvard_forest")
2. Subscription Policy
   One of two types:
   • Closed - only list owner(s) may subscribe or unsubscribe addresses
   • Open - anyone may subscribe or unsubscribe themselves
   NOTES:
   • If you wish to control who is subscribed but wish to allow subscribers to SELF-unsubscribe, put "Allow Open UNsubscription" in the "Anything else we need to know"? field.
   • If you don't want subscribers to have permission to see that they are subscribed to this list (e.g., a Section list) put "Hide subscribers" in the "Anything else we need to know?" field.
3. Posting Policy
   One of four types:
   • Closed - only subscribers may post
   • Authorized - only specific addresses may post
   • Closed + Authorized - Subscribers & other specific addresses may post
   • Open - anyone knowing the list address may post (not recommended)
4. Describe the purpose of this list
   A short description, such as "RC 2022 class project".
5. List expiration date This is a required field, to help manage and decommission lists whose use time has ended. Some suggested expiration dates:
   • For lists containing only current MBA ECs: the week after their Commencement.
   • For Exed Participant lists: a date one year after their program ends.
   • Lists used for a specific class project: a date after the end of the class semester.
   • For non-expiring lists such as Staff social contact: enter a date in the far future, like 01/01/2040
6. Will you provide a file of addresses to pre-subscribe? Yes/No - if Yes, attach the file to the ServiceNow request that will be generated by filling out this form.
7. Full addresses of list owner(s) When designating list owners keep in mind:
   • Only HBS.EDU addresses may be owners
   • Only personal emails not group/shared mailboxes (jdoe@hbs.edu is allowed, news@hbs.edu is not).
   • List owners are the ONLY people allowed to manage subscribers - there is no more "sharing a list password" ability! So list as owners any HBS person in your office who will need to manage the list's subscribers and/or authorized posters.
   • If any list owner departs, please notify TSS ASAP who is the replacement owner. If there is no active HBS account owning the list, its subscriber content will be inaccessable until IT adds a new owner.
8. HBS Department of list owners.
9. Your email address. This is to whom the ServiceNow ticket will be assigned. You will NOT be made a list owner unless you have also included your address in the list owner field above.
10. Anything else we need to know about this request? Optional field to mention anything not covered above. Some examples:
    • "Please also add list owners as subscribers."
    • "Do not load subscribers until [a date/time]"
    • "This list will replace [listname1] - please copy over the subscribers to this list [listname2] and delete [listname1]"
    • "Please add [person]@hbs.edu to the ServiceNow ticket watch list"
11. Click on the 'Submit' button.

Submitting the request form will result in a ServiceNow ticket being created containing the information you provided. You should receive notice that the ticket was created. When someone is assigned to the ticket they will reach out if more information or discussion is necessary, and notify you when the list has been created. Remember to attach your pre-subscribe address list to the ServiceNow ticket! Also remember to subscribe yourself or the list owner if you/they wish to be on the list - becoming a list's owner or authorized poster does not mean you are automatically subscribed to it!

Adding Subscribers to a New List

When you request the creation of a new list, the list will be created without any subscribers unless you provide a list of addresses to pre-subscribe. Things to keep in mind:

• The Tier 2 list creator will add the supplied subscriber list in "Quiet" mode. This means that the addresses subscribed will NOT receive an email notification "You have been subscribed to list X."
• If you don't have the subscriber list at the time the list is created you the list owner will be able to bulk add subscribers at a later time via the Sympa web interface (also without notification).
• If some or all of your subscribers should be imported from another list (like "all the residents_owners should also be subscribers") be sure to state this in your request, as it requires special configuration.
• If it is important that subscribers not know their list membership until a certain day/time (such as MBA section lists) request that subscribers be hidden - this prevents a subscriber from using the "which" email command or viewing it in "your lists" on the web interface. If you are not certain the list is subscriber-hidden, do not add/request to add them until that day/time to avoid the risk of premature reveals.

List Administration

For a screen shot illustrated guide to some of these actions see "Managing List Subscribers"

To manage a list you own:

1. Go to the Sympa lists environment homepage and click the HBS login button at the top right to log on.
2. Click the My lists button in the left middle to go to a list of the lists you either own or of which you are a subscriber.
3. Under the name of the owned list you wish to manage click Review members.

You are now on the specific list's Manage List Members page. From here you can:

• Check the list's Data Sources: Your list may have subscriber, owner, and/or moderator data imported from other lists. Before making any changes check the sources to identify how this information is working with your list:
  1. Hover over "Edit list config" in the red row under "Basic Operations" and select Data sources setup from the dropdown choices.
  2. Inspect the information listed:
     • "Subscribers defined in an external data source" will say "default" if none. Will show the name of another list(s) if used, for example "residents_owners".
     • "Owners defined in an external data source" will always contain "tier_2_privileged_owners". If your list is one of several with the same set of owners that owner list will also be listed, for example "mba_reg_owners".
     • "Moderators defined in an external data source" will say "default" if there are no authorized posters. Will show the name of an _auth list if there are moderators, for example "residents_auth".

Other clues indicating some subscribers are provided from a separate Data Source:

• There is a button on the Manage list members page "Synchronize members with data sources"
• In the subscriber table some addresses have the source "include_list [listname]" rather than saying "subscribed"

• Export a file of all subscribers - Click the Dump or Dump with names button under Administrative options.
• Check the blocklist - Click the Blocklist button to see any addresses prevented from interacting with the list. You may also add addresses to block from here, for example if you have an Open posting list that is being spammed. Ask the Listmasters for more information.
• Excluded subscribers - Click the Exclude button to see if any person who was subscribed via a Data Source has been manually unsubscribed from this list (but not the Data Source). Ask the Listmasters for more information.

The options under List Configuration allow you to see the list's current settings for each option, but making modifications to them requires elevated privileges - please submit a ServiceNow request for any change.

Subscribing Users

From the list's Home page under View or Manage Subscribers click on Add/delete subscribers

Under Add Subscribers:

• To add a single subscriber:
  1. Type their email address in the field under "To add an individual subscriber"
  2. Click the ADD button immediately below that
  3. On the next page "add subscribers" you will be asked "Do you really want to add [address]?" Click Confirm if all is correct. Click Back if you made a mistake.
  4. You will be returned to the Manage list members page.
     • If the subscription was successful you will briefly see a blue popup window saying "User [address] is now a member of [Listname]".
     • If the address was already a subscriber you will see a red popup window saying "ERROR (add) - The User '[address]' is already subscriber of list". Click the black "X" in the box to close it.
     • If you did not type a full email address 'user@domain.ext" you will see a red popup window saying " ERROR (add) - Address "xyz@w" is incorrect". Click the black "X" in the box to close it and readd with the correct address.
• To add multiple subscribers:
  1. If more than a couple of addresses, have available a list of the addresses to be subscribed in a spreadsheet or text doc, one address per cell/line.
  2. Under "To add multiple users" click the Multiple add button.
  3. In the large field box on the next page paste your column of addresses to subscribe or manually type in the addresses if only a few.
  4. Click the Add subscribers button.
  5. You will be returned to the Manage list members page.
     • For the successfully subscribed addresses you will briefly see a blue popup window saying "User [address] is now a member of [Listname]".
     • For addresses that were already subscribed you will see red popup windows saying "ERROR (add) - The User '[address]' is already subscriber of list". Click the black "X" in each box to close it.
     • If you did not type a full email address 'user@domain.ext" you will see a red popup window saying " ERROR (add) - Syntax/Address "xyz@w" is incorrect". Make a note of the malformed address, click the black "X" in each box to close it, then add the corrected address.

Unsubscribing Users

From the list's Home page under View or Manage Subscribers click on Add/delete subscribers

Towards the bottom of the page you will find a list of all subscribers. To unsubscribe any:

1. View the list of subscribers and click on the checkbox next to the addresses you wish to unsubscribe.
   • If there are many subscribers and you only need to find one, enter their address in the Search for a User field just above the full subscriber list and click the Search Button. You will then see the address below if it is subscribed. No address will appear if they are not subscribed with the address you searched.
   • If you want to find all subscribed addresses of a certain domain, for instance all addresses @mba2022.hbs.edu, enter just that partial address in the search field. Note: after clicking the Search button the resulting page may take you to the top of the "Manage list members" page - scroll back down to the bottom to see your search results.
2. If you want to unsubscribe ALL of the addresses you have found, click the checkbox in the red list header next to "Email" - this will check ALL of the boxes in the full or partial subscriber list you are viewing. Otherwise just click the boxes next to the specific addresses to unsub.
3. Click the box Quiet (don't send deletion email) if you do not want users to be notified of their unsubscription.
4. Now click Delete selected email addresses
5. On the next page you will be shown a list of all the subscribers you selected with the question "Do you really want to unsubscribe ALL selected subscribers?" There is a second chance to select the "Quiet" mode if you forgot (box will be pre-checked if you already selected it). Click Confirm if all is correct. Click Back if you made a mistake.
6. You will briefly see a blue popup window saying "The user [address] has been removed from the list".

Seeing Who is Subscribed

To download a list of all the subscribers:

1. From the list's Home page under View or Manage Subscribers click on View the list of subscribers.
2. Under "Administrative Options" click the word Dump in the row of buttons. This will create and download a text file of all the subscribed addresses

Blocklist Management

Managing Authorized Posters

In the HBS configuration of Sympa "Authorized Posters" have the Moderator role for your list. The addresses defined as Moderators are read into your list from one or more other lists with the name [name]_auth.

If your list has an Authorized Poster list specifically for your list only, it will have the same name as your list with the "_auth" added. For example, the list "trees" might have an Authorized Posters list named "trees_auth".

Finding the Name of a List's Authorized Poster File(s)

To see whether you list has one or more Authorized Poster files associated with it:

1. From the list's Home page click the Admin link in the boxed area on the left.
2. Under "Basic Operations" select the pull-down menu Edit List Config and from the menue click on Data sources setup.
3. Scroll down to the section Moderators defined in an external data source. If there is an Authorized Poster file being used, you will see its name under Data source parameters. If there is more than one Authorized Poster file being used, there will be another list of parameters below the first, with a different file name in its "data source parameters".

Managing an Authorized Poster file

An Authorized Poster list is a separate full Sympa list and its subscribers are maintained in the same way as described above in the Subscribe and Unsubscribe sections. Search for the list name that you found in the Moderators "data source parameters" of your list and access it the same way. YOU must be a list owner of the [name]_auth list in order to change its subscribers. If you are not allowed to access it and believe you should be, open a ServiceNow ticket requesting your addition as a list owner of [name]_auth and stating why you should be given ownership (for example, because you own the list [name]).

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT UPDATE TIMING: Once you update the subscribers in the "[name]_auth" file it can take up to an hour for the change to propagate to the list(s) using that Authorized Poster file. If you need it to take effect immediately, open a ticket to TSS saying "Time Sensitive - Please direct to CSE - Please synchronize Moderators for list [name] ASAP."

"List of Lists" Special Note

If the list's subscribers are defined as the subscribers of several other lists (for example, the list "mba2023" has as its subscribers the members of the Section lists mba2023a through mba2023k) it is a List of Lists.

Because the List of List's subscribers are not directly subscribed to it, you are not allowed to remove/add any subscribers from/to the List of Lists - instead you must modify the subscriber in the list from which the List of Lists is gathering its subscribers. Here's an example:

• Student jsmith@mba2023.hbs.edu is in Section A, so is subscribed to the mba2023a list.
• All the mba2023a subscribers are used as a Subscriber Data Source for the mba2023 list.
• Student jsmith decides to drop out, so is no longer a member of the 2023 MBA class.
• An MBA Services list owner goes to the MBA2023a list home page and unsubscribes jsmith@mba2023.hbs.edu from that section list.
• After an hour or two "jsmith@mba2023.hbs.edu" will disappear from MBA2023's full class list of lists.

Sending Commands via Email

While it is possible to send certain commands about your lists to Sympa via email, using the web interface will guarantee better results..

But if you are a listowner and need to do something (e.g., un/subscribe someone ASAP) when you only have access to you HBS email account on a mobile device, see the Sympa Email Commands page for more information.