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Mailing Lists

A mailing list is an e-mail address that contains a list of individual addresses so that you can send a single e-mail to multiple recipients in one go.

We can provide two types of mailing lists, either of which can be used depending on your requirements.

Distribution Lists

These types of list have a fixed set of recipients.

Distribution Lists are typically used for one-to-many communication such as department distribution lists or student distribution lists. They cannot contain external recipients and are typically only for internal use.

Distribution lists containing students sorted by school, year, course and more are already provided and kept up-to-date.

Student distribution lists can be viewed and mailed to using your address book within Microsoft Outlook - instructions are available for Outlook 2003, Outlook Web Access Premium and Light. Additionally, for your convenience, the current lists are available online (requires authentication).

Old-style distribution lists are listed through the mailhub web interface.

Request a new distribution list.

Mailman Lists

These types of list can be subscribed to or left at each recipient's convenience. Each list is administered through a web interface by each list's administrator.

Mailman Lists are typically used for many-to-many communication such as group discussions and collaboration, or for one-to-many communications where people can freely subscribe. These lists can have internal and external recipients.

This type of list is fairly flexible, with options to open or close subscriptions, prevent or allow free mailing to the list and allow recipients to browse list archives.

All communications to and from Mailman lists is via the @lists.aston.ac.uk domain, and mail sent to Mailman lists typically has the list name in the subject of each message.

You can access the public lists through the Mailman web interface.

Documentation is available online for list subscribers and list administrators.

Request a new mailman list.

 

Mailing list policy


The following policy guidelines apply to both types of list, unless otherwise stated

  • Mailing lists can be created at the request of departments/divisions. Mailing lists for student societies and individual students cannot be created.

  • Each mailing list must have a unique name and description agreed with ISA.

  • Each mailing list must be owned and maintained by a named individual.  It is the responsibility of the list owner to keep the contents of the list up-to-date.

  • Student mailing lists are automatically generated. Before requesting a new student mailing list, please check if a combination of student lists will be suitable.

Tips on naming lists

  • Keep it simple. For easy identification, prefix your department or school name eg. isa_listname or eas_listname.

  • Avoid odd characters. It is best to stick to a set such as [A-Za-z0-9_.-] .

  • Distribution lists can include other lists to help you avoid adding lots of individual addresses