KB / Account Control Panel / Mail :: Discussion Lists
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Creating a discussion list
Discussion lists are a very valuable feature that DreamHost customers can add to their hosting accounts. By hosting a discussion list, people from across the world can communicate with each-other about topics of mutual interest. This not only provides your site's visitors with a way to communicate beyond the confines of your site itself, but provides you with another way to keep people interested in what you have to say and offer.
Discussion List 101
In short, a discussion list is a common email address (say, 'mycoollist@mydomain.com') that is shared with list subscribers. When a subscriber sends an email message to that address, it is forwarded on to everyone else subscribed to that list.
Basically, it's a form of two-way broadcast email.
Who Can Create Discussion Lists?
All DreamHost customers can create unlimited discussion lists, because we love you all so much!
How To Set One Up
Setting up a basic discussion list is pretty simple. First, go to the "Mail :: Discussion Lists" section of your web panel. As a short-cut, you can go to the following URL:
https://panel.dreamhost.com/index.cgi?tree=mail.discussion
Once there, you'll be given a list of already created discussion lists (if any), as well as a link to create your own discussion list. To create one, click on the 'Create New Discussion List' link now.
On the screen that appears, you'll be asked for some basic information about your list:
List Name Type in the name of your mailing list. For example, if your list is for German Shepherd dog owners, it could be named "German Shepherd Talk" or something similar.
Owner E-Mail Address This is the email address belonging to the list owner. Usually, you'll want to put your own email address here.
Password Enter the password you wish to use when managing your list - preferably something reasonably secure (ie. containing no real words, as well as a mix of numbers and letters). Note that this password is completely unrelated to your password for the web panel or your FTP/Telnet account.
Confirm Password The same as above. This is to make sure you typed it in correctly the first time.
Domain Select the domain name you wish for the list to be hosted under. If you don't have one already, you can create a special sub-domain just for your list (ie. "lists.yourdomain.com"). This is where you would go in the future to manage the finer details of your mailing list.
You're also given the option to automatically create the email addresses associated with the discussion list. We suggest that you do so (leaving the checkbox checked).
Last but not least, you'll need to decide which plan to associate the discussion list with. As all plans include unlimited lists it really doesn't matter which you choose, but may make it easier for you to manage if you keep all related services under the same plans.
That's it! There's a lot more you can do to further tune your mailing list - our panel only helps in their creation and basic management, but additional options are available if you need them. These lists are powered by the Mailman discussion list software - if you're interested in learning more, you can read up on it here:
All of the additional list management options are a bit beyond the scope of this document, but you can read more about them at the URL above and change them at the URL you gave for your list (usually in the form 'lists.yourdomain.com').
Deleting / Managing Current Lists
From the main discussion list listing, you can manage or delete current lists.
To delete a list, simply click on the 'Destroy' link to its right (What can we say? Our developers have a flair for the dramatic!). You'll be asked to confirm the deletion, as well as any archived postings or email addresses associated with the list. Check which items you wish to delete, then click on the confirm button.
To manage a list instead, click on the 'Manage' link to its right (in the listing). You'll be brought to the list's management screen. Note that this screen is not a part of the web panel, but is rather provided by the Mailman mailing list software that powers our discussion list feature.
Discussion List Issues, Discussion, and Troubleshooting
Speed
Discussion lists on dreamhost occasionally take a while to distribute messages out to the list. A reliable cause or explanation of this has not yet been found. Please edit this section to include your own experiences and new information.
Existing discussion:
- July 2006 / slow / support: recent problems with mailman, hopefully fixed / [1]
- May 2006 / slow / no reply / [2]
- Feb 2006 / slow / multiple 'me toos' / [3]
- Support: "The mailing list server is doing its monthly sending of membership reminders for all members of all lists, so it has a large queue that it has to churn through."
- March 2006 / 200 emails per hour cap? -- no reply / [4]
- Oct 2005 / Conversation with 'dallas' from dreamhost re email throttling and per hour limit / [5]
- "Don't send more than 500-700 per hour".
Automatic Password Reminders
Automatic Password Reminder mailing is turned off globally by Dreamhost. So your list & user settings will have no effect. You may wish to edit your outgoing administrative messages to reflect this fact.
From Dreamhost support, Sept 2007 - "We turned off the password reminders because they were mostly annoying and unnecessary to customers, plus they took extra server resources."
Third Party Software
- PHPList
Mailing list home page
The "home page" for a mailing list can be found at the subdomain created for the list, for example, http://lists.example.com/, where "lists.example.com" is the name chosen when setting up the list. The list information page and list administration page can be accessed from links at the list home page.
Mailing list home directory
Due to a recent finding where discussion lists were often breaking due to their location in user's home directories, a major change was made to the system. Discussion list home directories are no longer publicly accessible.
Mailing list server IP?
The IP of the mailing list server can be found in several ways, including examples like:
- ping lists.example.com
- host lists.example.com
- dig lists.example.com
where "lists.example.com" is the name chosen when setting up the list.
Deleting Discussion List Mail Archive
We automatically provide an archive of all discussion list mail. You can turn that off in the Mailman configuration interface. If you find that you want the archives removed after some have been created, you should contact our support team and let us know which lists you want the archives removed for and we can do that for you. There is no way for you to do that yourself at this time.
Editing Convenience Addresses
Please note, you can only bulk edit aliases that you created manually. The discussion list convenience addresses are not available for edit under the 'manage email' section of your web panel and do not show up under the 'Bulk Edit Forward-only Addresses' menu. In you didn't see those addresses in the bulk editor and tried to create them, you may run the risk of deleting the ones we automatically created for you. If that's the case, please contact us so we can fix it, and put them back to normal. The only way to delete/readd the convenience addresses is to contact support.
