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Electronic Mailing List Information & Message Archives

Starting with summer 2020 classes, class email lists are powered by Google Groups. The process for requesting a new class email list through SPIRE will not change. Log in with your NetID and password at groups.google.com to manage your class lists.
Google Groups documentation & support articles


The List Information Page

For class email lists, see Unsubscribe from a group.

For other email lists:

Mailman lists have a list information (Info) page that lets users join or leave that list, access list archives, or change their member settings.

To access a list's Info page, open a Web browser and go to:

https://list.umass.edu/mailman/listinfo/listname

Where listname is the name of the list (i.e., the first part of the list address, before the @ symbol).

List Archives

A request needs to be submitted to the IT Help Center in order to have messages sent to Mailman email lists archived. Once the request is confirmed, to access a list's archive:

  • List subscribers: Go to the Info page for the desired list and click [listname] archives. You will be prompted for your Mailman password.
  • List administrators: Log in to Mailman and on the List Administration screen, click Go to list archives. The [listname] Archive page will open.

The [listname] Archives page shows you all messages posted to a list, in monthly installments.

  • Messages are archived in plain text format. No attachments or HTML components are saved. Make sure you include critical information as text in the body of your messages!
  • Within each month, you can sort messages by [Thread], [Subject], [Author], and [Date].
  • To view all messages sent during a particular month in one document, under Downloadable version, click [Text...]. You will be able to download the messages to your computer as a plain text (.txt) document and view them there.

About Mailing List Addresses

In order to post messages to an electronic mailing list, the author must send an email message to the list's address.
Note: Lists can be configured to forward all messages received, messages coming from list members, or only messages from one or more individual members.

  • The format of a mailing list name is list-name@organization.umass.edu. list-name should either contain a hyphen or be at least nine characters in length. Examples: geol-1, geo-grad, oit-admin, etc.
  • Mailing lists for faculty, staff, and/or students in a department should begin with the name of the academic department. Examples: comm-staff, geo-fac, math-grads.
  • organization.umass.edu will be the mail domain of the campus organization. Examples: math.umass.edu, english.umass.edu
    Note: List names may be modified by IT to conform to naming standards.
  • The address for any class email list is based on the following formula:
    departmentabbreviation-classnumber-sectionumber-semester@courses.umass.edu.
    For example, the list address for Chemical Engineering (CE-ENGIN) 290A, Section 01 offered in Fall 2011 would be: ce-engin-290a-01-fal11@courses.umass.edu