Change Mailman List Moderation Settings

Introduction

By default, Mailman lists are not moderated. This means that if a member sends a message to a list, the message will automatically be sent to everyone on the list with no prior approval required.

As unapproved content could potentially be sent to thousands of people unchecked, unmoderated lists can create issues. Furthermore, every reply to the message is also sent to everyone in the list.

This article provides instructions for changing the configuration of a Mailman list's moderation settings to prevent these issues.

Applicability

This article was written for Mailman List Administrators.

Procedure

Login to your Mailman List

Using a web browser, go to the admin page for the list, in the format http://www.mailman.srv.ualberta.ca/mailman/admin/LISTNAME (where 'LISTNAME' is replaced with the actual name of the list).
Using the mailman site admin password, log in to the list's admin page.

Enable Moderation for Existing Members

Go to Membership Management
Under the Additional Member Tasks section at the bottom of the list page, change the "Set everyone's moderation bit, including those members not currently visible" option to On.
Click Set (at the right) to save this change.

Enable Moderation for New Members by default

Go to Privacy Options > Sender Filters
Change the "By default, should new list member postings be moderated?" option to Yes.
Click Submit Your Changes at the bottom of the page.

Non-Member Moderation

1. Go to Privacy Options > Sender Filters.

2. Ensure that there are no email addresses in the "List of non-member addresses whose postings should be automatically accepted" box.

3. Ensure that the "Action to take for postings from non-members for which no explicit action is defined" option is NOT set to "Accept". (The default setting is "Hold.")

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