We use a mailing list and shared web application called Sympa to provide a simple yet sophisticated set of tools for you and your group to manage your email lists and communication strategies. A full Reference manual is available at http://www.sympa.org/manual/ To create a new mailing list:

Get a Password:

1. Go to vancouvercommunity.net/lists. You will see a selection of public mailing lists. To see private mailing lists you are subscribed to, you must login Click on the "Login" button at the top left of your screen
2. Click the "Send me a Password" button
3. Type in your email address
4. Click the "Send me my Password" button
You can also use this feature if you ever forget your password
` 1. Open your email with your regular email program. You will find new mail to you from Sympa with a temporary password (copy this to your clipboard) and links to: password changes, mailing lists service and a help page
2. Click the "Changing your password" link Paste in your temporary password
3. Enter an easier to remember new password (write it down!)
4. Re-enter your new password
5. Click the "submit" button

This password will also work for any other VCN list subscriptions you have.
Configure your account:

• Go back to the login screen and use your full email address and password
• You are now logged onto the Mailing list services The "Your environment" page is where you can change other details of your account like your full name, language and other email addresses you may use occasionally

Create your mailing list:

1. Click on "Create list" on the top menu bar Fill in your mailing "List name" (either put a hyphen in it or make it longer than 8 characters)
2. Often lists are identified as such to avoid their confusion with regular email addresses (eg. planning-list, or planning-l)
3. Choose the type of list that best reflects you intentions. You can make adjustments to the configuration once you are using it 4. Type in a "Subject" for your mailing list that briefly identifies what it is for
5. Select a "Topic" (you can add more later)
6. Type in a "Description" of your list to be sent to all new subscribers with the information they need to use it effectively. Here's a rather elaborate sample(need link - http://www2.vcn.bc.ca/list_desc_sample)

Configure your list:

1. Click on "Submit your creation request". The list will not be active until VCN validates it, however you can modify its configuration
2. Click on the "List admin" button on the left-hand side of the screen Using the choices on the "List administration panel",
3. You can now add and remove owners, moderators and subscribers to the list.(warning: if you add email addresses to the list without the "quiet" mode activated, they will be notified of their subscription - even though the list is not functional)
4. Add your own address as a subscriber - it will help you find the list later!
5. You can create a "Shared web" to store documents and links. And you can develop texts to be sent to subscribers and others.

For information on using your mailing list effectively you should consider studying "From Workplace to Workspace" http://www.idrc.ca/books/848/

Add a Subject Tag Line
Go to "List Admin" for the particular mailing list

1. Click on "Edit List Config" from the "List Administration Panel"
2. Choose "Sending/reception setup" from the list of options
3. Type in your abbreviated list name under "Subject Tagging"
4. Click "Update" to save your changes

View list archives:

1. After logging in, click on the list name you want to view
2. Click in the 'archive' button in the left hand column B
3. Browse the archives by month, or use the 'advanced search' link to search by keyword (there are lots of options to narrow down a search). Some archives have been transferred from our previous list Manager, Majordomo.

View a list shared web space:

1. From the left hand column, click on 'Shared web' You'll may see a number of types of documents posted, they can be text, html, links, subfolders or files created with proprietary software (remember, only those with appropriate software will be able to view them)
2. To view a document, either click on the link or use the edit link. It's easier to view text files using the edit link, and to view html files using the file name link (a new window will open).
3. To make changes, click on the 'edit' link. Make the desired changes and then hit the 'publish' button.
4. To upload an existing file from your hard drive, use the 'browse' and 'publish' buttons at the bottom of the screen.
5. To add a new document you're creating from scratch, enter a file name in the box to the left of the 'create a file' button. Then fill in the info on the next screen and hit the 'publish' button. These will be plain text files (unless you add html tags).
6. You can also create subdirectories within the 'shared web' folder and store docs there. I haven't found an easy way to move docs around from folder to folder, other than re- uploading.

Moderating a mailing list:

1. After logging in, click 'list admin' link on the left hand column.
2. On the next screen, click on the 'moderate' link on the list administration panel to see any messages for distribution or rejection.

1. Go to vancouvercommunity.net/lists
2. Click on "Login"
3. In the popup window, click the "Send me a password" button
4. Enter your email and click the "Send me my password" button.

You will be sent an initial password to login into Sympa. Once you have logged in you can change your password. See ChangingYourPasswordInSympa and LoggingIntoSympa for more info.

Changing how you recieve messages in sympa(need link)

Email commands(need link)

You need to have a Login from Sympa already to login. See Getting a Login in Sympa (Above) for more info.

1. Go to vancouvercommunity.net/lists
2. Click on "Login"
3. In the popup window, type in your email address and your password. If you don't remember you password, click the "Send me a password" button below and Sympa will send you your password.
4. Click the "Login" button.

If the homepage of Sympa doesn't reload, click the "Reload" or "Refresh" button of your browser.
If you get the message "Sympa could not set a cookie for login. Your should setup your navigator to accept cookies" or you do not get logged in, make sure your browser is setup to accept cookies.
In Netscape:

1. Click on "Edit", then click "Preferences"
2. In the "Category" window, double click on "Advanced"
3. In the Cookies section, make sure "Accept all cookies" 4. Click OK 5. Login to Sympa again.

1. Login to Sympa at vancouvercommunity.net/lists See Logging into Sympa for more info.
2. Click on "Preferences"
3. Under "Changing your password", enter your new password into the 2 text fields labelled "New password :" and "Re-enter your new password :".
4. Click the "Submit" button below.

Your password change is successful if you see this message at the top "setpasswd : action succeeded"

1. Go to vancouvercommunity.net/lists
2. Click on Login. Click on Send me a password.
3. Enter your VCN email address and click "Send me my password".
4. Check your email for you initial password and enter it with you email address to login
5. Click "Create list" at the top. Fill it in and click on "Submit".
6. When we received your request from Sympa, we will validate your list.
7. In the meantime, you can configure your list.

Here some common things you can do you configure the Sympa mailing list.

Changing the list's info or description.

1. Log into vancouvercommunity.net/lists
2. Click on "Your Subscriptions"
3. Click on the on the "Admin" button next to your list's name.
4. Click on "Subscribers"
5. Add your own email address right now - it will help you find the list later!
6. Click on "Customizing" from the list admin panel.
7. Select "list description" from the drop down and click the "Edit" button.
8. Edit the information and click on "Save".

How to customized the invite, subscription or welcome, unsubscription, header footer, list description, list homepage, invitation, reminder, or subscriber removal message

1. Login to Sympa
2. then click on "List Admin".
3. Click on "Customizing" from the list admin panel
4. select message you want to customize from the drop down list and click the "edit" button.
5. In the textbox, type in or edit the message, then click the "Save" button at the bottom.

NOTE: some message will contain Sympa variables, ie [LIST->INFO]. Do not modify these unless you know what they do. It is recommended that you add your text around the variables.

To customized another message, repeat steps 2-5.

The following email commands are available only for list owners or list moderators. Curently (9/03), email commands are not available for mailing lists with their own domain names:

ADD user@host First Last	* To add a user to a list
DEL user@host	* To delete a user from a list
STATS	* To consult the statistics for
EXPire	* To begin an expiration process for subscribers who have not confirmed their subscription for x days. The subscribers have x days to confirm
EXPireINDex	* Displays the current expiration process state for
EXPireDEL	* To de-activate the expiration process for
REMIND	* Send a reminder message to each subscriber (this is a way to inform anyone what is his real subscribing email).
DISTribute	* Moderation: to validate a message
REJect	* Moderation: to reject a message
MODINDEX	* Moderation: to consult the message list to moderate

1. Go to vancouvercommunity.net/lists
2. Click on Login. Enter your email address and password.
3. Click on "Your subscriptions", then click on the "Admin" button for the list that you wish to make the changes to.
4. Click "List Admin" then "Edit list config".
5. Click "List definition".
6. Make the changes you wish. Don't forget to save the page when you've finished changing it!

Send an email to sympa@vancouvercommunity.net with the following text in the body of your message:

INVITE (list-name) (email address of the invitee)

Repeat the line as many times as you like with different addresses in the same email

You can configure your invite in the customizing menu, but the standard will be something like:

Hi,
You are invited to join a mailing list for Community Network projects across Canada. To subscribe just reply to this message or click here:

sympa@vancouvercommunity.net

If you don't want to subscribe just ignore this message