This chapter describes how to be a moderator(*) (message and subscription) and remote administrator(*) for a mailing list run by ezmlm-idx. As none of these features are available with basic ezmlm, this discussion will be limited to ezmlm-idx.
Features that require ezmlm-idx are marked “(*)”. Features that require ezmlm-idx version 7 are marked “(*7)”.
An “administrator” is a person responsible for the management of a mailing list. A “remote administrator” is an address with the permissions to do certain administrative tasks remotely by E-mail. Depending on how the list is configured, remote administrators may have the permission to list subscribers, search for subscriber addresses by name, add and remove subscriber addresses and/or edit the texts that ezmlm-idx sends in reply to list commands. A “moderator” is an address to which messages are sent for approval. The message will be passed on only if a moderator has approved it. ezmlm-idx distinguishes between “message moderators” and “subscription moderators”. Posts to a message moderated list are sent to the “message moderators”. The list acts on the first moderator reply it receives to accept or reject the post. For subscription moderated lists, the users' subscription requests are sent to the “subscription moderators”. If at least one subscription moderator approves the request the user address becomes a subscriber. While remote administration and subscription moderation are enabled separately, the addresses are always the same. Message moderators can be a different group of addresses, but in practice most lists use the same addresses for all 3 functions.
In all transactions ezmlm-idx keeps the moderators' addresses secret, even from other moderators. If you want to tell the user who you are, send them a separate E-mail. Of course, a list owner may choose to make the moderators' identities public.
ezmlm-idx also keeps subscriber addresses secret from other subscribers. Only if configured (see below) will it allow the addresses to be listed, and then only to remote administrators.
ezmlm-idx sends special moderator help in response to a -help request from a moderator(*). To receive this information for ‘mailinglist@example.org’, send mail to ‘mailinglist-help@example.org’.