Sympa Tutorial
Search
Managing subscribers: (un)subscribing, reviewing, modifying
To manage your forum subscriptions, you can work:
- either from your e-mail application;
- or from the Sympa Web environment/interface.
Please note: If you choose to work from your e-mail application, you have to be extremely accurate in writing requests. The server that manages the discussion list will not be able to recognize requests if they do not correspond exactly to the elements that it can understand (a typing error, an extra space, etc. can cause the request to be rejected or not carried out by the server).
Below are three tables that detail the procedures to follow for the different operations that you will need to undertake in both cases (if you are working from your e-mail application or the Web environment).
Make sure that all requests you send by e-mail, and all messages in general, are in text-only format, and that your messages do not have a signature that is added automatically, since this will prevent the request being understood and executed by the Sympa system.
- Subscriptions
| from the Sympa interface | from your e-mail application |
| 1. Log into your forum interface | Send the following message to sympa@forums.[your domain name] Example: sympa@forums.awele.net |
| 2. Click on the “admin” button to the left of your forum address under "Your lists" | the message is to contain, once you have replaced the text between square brackets: ADD [list name] [e-mail address] [Firstname LASTNAME] |
| 3. Click on "Manage subscribers" | Example: ADD work mary.smith@hotmail.com Mary SMITH |
| 4. Click on "Multiple add" | Make sure that there is no blank space or blank line before the start of the above message, and that there is nothing else in the body of your message, for example, an “automatic signature” that is added to your message. |
| 5. Enter your first subscriber using the format: e-mail address Firstname LASTNAME example: mary.smith@hotmail.com Mary SMITH Be careful never to put more than one blank space between the e-mail address, first name and last name. | Leave the “Subject” line empty and send. |
| 6. Enter the following subscriptions using the same format, starting on a new line for each new subscription. | You can perform as many subscriptions as you want in the same message, making sure you start on a new line for each subscription. |
| 7. Delete the line of dots at the end of the page. | |
| 8. Click on "Add subscribers" at the bottom of the screen. | |
| 9. When the "quiet"
option is checked, the participant will not receive the welcome
message. When it is not checked, the participants will receive the
welcome message (you can check "quiet," for example, when a subscriber has asked you to subscribe them with a second address and they have already received the welcome message when they first subscribed). |
- Unsubscriptions
| from the Sympa interface | from your e-mail application |
| 1. Log in. | Send the following message to sympa@forums.[your domain name] Example: sympa@forums.awele.net |
| 2. Click on the “admin” button to the left of your forum address under "Your lists" | the message is to contain, once you have replaced the text between square brackets: DEL [list name] [e-mail address] |
| 3. Click on "Manage subscribers" | Example: DEL facilitation mary.smith@hotmail.com |
| 4. In the list of subscribers, check the name(s) of the subscribers you wish to unsubscribe. | You can delete several subscribers via the same message. Start a new line for each unsubscription. Make sure there is nothing else in the body of your message, for example, an “automatic signature” that is added to your message. |
| 5. Click on "Delete selected e-mail addresses" | Leave the “Subject” line empty and send. |
| 6. When the "quiet" option is checked, the participants will not receive the unsubscription message; when the option is not checked, the participant will receive the unsubscription message. |
- Reviewing the list of participants
| from the Sympa interface | from your e-mail application |
| 1. Log in. | Send the following message to sympa@forums.[your domain name] Example: sympa@forums.awele.net |
| 2. Click on the “admin” button to the left of your forum address under "Your lists" | The message is to contain, once you have replaced the text between square brackets: REVIEW [list name] Example: REVIEW mountains You can request the list of subscribers for several forums in the same message by a new line with the same command for each forum. |
| 3. Click on "Manage subscribers" | You will receive the list(s) of subscribers by e-mail. |
- Changing (or adding) participants’ names and changing participants’ e-mails
You may have a subscription to your forum with only an e-mail address and no name and find out the name later on, you may have made a mistake with a name, or a participant could tell you that s/he now prefers receiving messages at a different e-mail address.
If you are working from your e-mail application, these types of modifications require you to unsubscribe then re-subscribe the subscriber with the correct name or new address.
The operation is simpler when performed in the Web environment:
1. Log in.
2. Click on the “admin” button to the left of your forum name under "Your lists".
3. Click on "Manage subscribers".
4. Click on the address of the subscriber in question.
5. Modify the name/address.
6. Click on “Update”.