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University Information Services
 

Information for list managers, list members and list moderators using the Cambridge @lists system.

Introduction

Information Services (UIS) runs a mailing list facility based on Sympa, a web- and email-based list management system. All lists are in the @lists.cam.ac.uk mail domain ('@lists' for short).

Mailing lists are usually used to send a single message to a group of people, for example staff lists for institutions and member lists for University Societies. A list name is typically several words linked together using hyphens; this naming scheme ensures related lists are grouped together. The first word indicates the category of mailing list involved; for example all mailing lists belonging to the Department of Futile Studies would start with the prefix 'futile'. University society mailing lists start with the prefix 'soc', the second component indicates which society is involved and any further components indicate groups within that society.

If you want a list for something that is not described by any University of Cambridge category, and is not specific to Cambridge, you should consider using the national JISCmail service.

A mailing list is simply a collection of email addresses - the list members. Each list also has a collection of managers. There are potentially two other groups of people associated with a mailing list. These are authorised senders, who are explicitly allowed to send messages to the list, and list moderators, who can deal with unauthorised messages and manage subscriptions.

To send a message to a list use the address list-name@lists.cam.ac.uk (where list-name is the name of the list).

How to apply for a mailing list

Mailing lists are available to institutions, research groups and University Societies. To apply for a mailing list, complete the form on the UIS self-service portal (you will need to log in).

Mailing lists and Managed Mail Domains

Mailing lists can also be used in conjunction with a Managed Mail Domain. For example, the Department of Futile Studies may have the Managed Mail Domain futile.cam.ac.uk and have a Very Important Research Project which the Department wants to have one or more project addresses, for example virp-info@futile.cam.ac.uk.

The manager of the Managed Mail Domain can add the address to their domain, pointing at the list futile-virpinfo@lists.cam.ac.uk. Project members can then be nominated to manage the list. Messages are sent to the virp-info@futile.cam.ac.uk address.