How to use Dada Mail > Mailing List Options
Control how your mailing list will behave.

General

Hide Your List
Hiding your list does not render the list unattainable from the outside world for subscriptions and unsubscriptions. It does make it impossible for uninvited users to find it, thus limiting who can subscribe.

When checked, your mailing list will have the following behavior:

• The mailing list will not be listed on Dada Mail's home screen where lists and their descriptions are available for the public to see and choose.
    
• The mailing list will not be listed in the admin login screen. You'll need to manually enter your list's short name. Or you can access your hidden list directly by using the following URL, of course changing "yourdomain.org" to your actual domain, and "listname" to the actual short name. (What's a "short name"? See How to use Dada Mail > Change List Information)
   
        http://yourdomain.org/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?flavor=sign_in;list=listname

This option is handy if you have a test list or an internal members-only list that you would not like to be made public. By giving members the correct information, or by using a sign-up form on on a webpage that only members can access, people can still subscribe and unsubscribe from your list.

Note: In your admin menu, under "Manage Appearance", click the "Subscription Form HTML" link to easily configure your webpage sign-up form, then copy and paste the code into the source code of your webpage.

Close Your List
When checked, no one can subscribe themselves. Subscribers are added only by the List Owner in the list's control panel. This is handy if you have an internal mailing list that has a "members only" policy.

Members can still unsubscribe themselves. Check "Receive Unsubscription Notices" (see below) so you'll know who's no longer on the list, especially if everyone should be getting your organization's messages.

For example, in an organization such as the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, you'd want all members of a flotilla to receive emails from the commander and other officers. You'll only want sworn-in members to get this mail. You'll manually add, using the list control panel, everyone who's in the roster. If someone unsubscribes themselves, you'll want to find out so you can ask why; perhaps they have a new email address.

Lookup Hostnames When Validating Email Addresses (MX Lookup)
When checked, subscription and unsubscriptions requests will be checked automatically to see if the domain that the email address originates from actually exists. This reduces the number of invalid subscription and unsubscription requests that occur when people type in mistakes (for example: myname@yaho.com).

Subscription Confirmations

Send Subscription Confirmation Emails (Double Opt-In)
Double Opt-In confirmation is an important and necessary method of confirming a subscription request. This prevents people from subscribing their friends without consent, which would make you a spammer. Whenever a new email address is subscribed, the would-be recipient is sent a confirmation email that informs them of the subscription action, describes the list, and provides a special URL that, when clicked, will subscribe their email address.

It is almost essential that you use this option. Briefly, this option stops:

• Unwanted subscriptions (spoofed email addresses)
• Incorrectly typed-in email addresses
• SPAM complaints (real or misinterpreted)

Receive Subscription/Unsubscription Notices
When checked, a brief email will be sent to the List Owner stating the time, IP of the subscriber, the status of the subscription and the email address of the subscription or unsubscription. This can give you a good measuring tool about how successful and desirable your mailings are.

Send Subscription/Unsubscription Successful Emails
When checked, the subscriber will receive a very thorough email detailing their subscription or unsubscription. This is very important for the subscriber. In the admin menu, under "Manage Copy", choose the "Email Messages" link to write a "subscription successful" email that includes information on how to unsubscribe. In the "unsubscription successful" email, include how they can re-subscribe later if they so desire. This is especially helpful if people unsubscribe while on vacation.

URL Redirects
When subscribers correctly subscribe and unsubscribe, Dada Mail will show them a screen (an HTML page, generated dynamically), telling them that their request was successful. You can design this page under "Manage Copy" > "HTML Messages".

If you want have Dada Mail to redirect to a different page, you may enter its URL in the appropriate text field under Subscriptions and Unsubscriptions in the list's control panel. Make sure to use a complete URL, starting with http://