Everyody's Receiving My Mail!

[Hammerz]

I recently set up several "no opt-in/out" mailing lists for my family, friends, church members and others. I use these to keep in touch, forward items of news or general interest, inform of church news/events, etc. They are pretty much "linear" -- I write to folks and folks reply to me -- NOT to each other (the list). I formerly used Oulook 98's "Bcc" feature to send mail to lists, but one of the lists has nearly 400 names on it, so I decided to move them all over to TCH's mail list.

 

Right after I did, two thigs happened: <_<

 

1) The list server sent out passwords and a link to everyone on all my lists to allow them to moderate their participation. (I later figured out that it was the first of the month and that was the default setting.).

 

Most of my readers are not heavy-duty "techies," so they were perplexed, confused and worried that somebody's (mine?) passwords were being send out over the Internet. I had to field way to many responses to to that issue, but I think (hope) it is solved and that I turned off the correct setting(s).

 

2) This one is potentially more serious. Soon after I set up the lists, and the server sent out those password/link e-mails, and people began reacting to them, I also began getting e-mails saying that folks were receiving e-mails intended for ME. It soon became apparent that everbody on my list was receving all the replies intnded for me! OUCH!

I am a pastor, and, from time to time, folks reply to a general mailing with something fairly personal -- not intended for "general consumption."

Once again, I dug back into the labyrinth of configuration menus and settings and (I think/hope) I found out how to shut off this flood of shotgun mailings. But I'm not certain that I have!

 

QUESTION: Does anyone out there know definitively how to set up the mail lists so that when people reply to a messge it ONLY comes back to ME (the sender)...not to the list (recipients)? Which settings apply? Folks say that they enjoy my various lists (humor, encouragement, news, family updates, church matters, etc.) but they get really "antsy" when it looks like something has "gone wrong" with my/their security.

 

Thanks for any help!

[TCH-JimE]

Hi,

 

On the account setting under "Where are replies to list messages directed? Poster is strongly recommended for most mailing lists" Have you clicked "poster" ?

 

Failing that, enter in an explict address (yours)

 

If you want to check this before letting it loose, create another mail list and a few email addresses and try it out

 

Jim

[KevinW]

Jim's, recommendation to try it with only a few email addresses is a good one. Remember, you have to crawl before you walk, and walk before you run. Too often, we forget that, and in our hurry to bring something up, we feel like it must be "all or nothing".

 

 

:-)

kw

[matman]

Yes, anytime you configure a computerized functionality for anything, you should test it, test it, test it, test it first.

 

Then test it again before deploying for real!