Subscribing to mailing lists
Subscribing to a mailing list is very simple:
-
Choose the address with which you want to subscribe to the list.
You should choose an address you can check frequently and which offers a large storage capacity for your email: some lists distribute many messages, which sometimes contain large attachments.
Of course you can subscribe to the same list with several email addresses. Then you will need to redo the whole process with a different email address.
-
Send a message to sympa@sympa.mpi-inf.mpg.de from the address you want to subscribe to the list.
Sympa is not a person but a mailing list management robot. Thus it is useless to send it loving words! ;-)
- In the subject line of your message, type in: subscribe nameofthelist Firstname Name (replace 'nameofthelist' by the name of the list you want to subscribe to and indicate your own first name and name).
-
Leave the message body blank.
To save some time, you can also send several commands in a single message. To do that, follow the instructions available in the How the mailing list service works section.
After this, you will receive a message telling you whether your request was accepted or not: if the subscription to the list is subject to any approval, the list owner may choose not to subscribe you. If so, do not send several other requests: it is useless as the result will remain the same. You can possibly send a message directly to the list owner (nameofthelist-request@sympa.mpi-inf.mpg.de) to explain why you really want to subscribe to the list...
Note: you will sometimes be asked to confirm your subscription request before it can be processed. If so, please conform to the instructions contained in the message you receive.
According to the type of list (list with subscription subject to conditions or not) and to the availability of the list owner, you may not receive the notice immediately. It is useless to send several requests.
If your request is accepted, the message you receive confirms your subscription to the list. This message (the list Charter) contains several pieces of essential information:
- your list password. This password is the same for all the lists you subscribed to with a single email address. You can change it online after logging on to the mailing list environment;
- detailed information about the list: its purpose, the Internet address at which the message archive is available, etc.
- the rules applying to the list and its members: allowed and forbidden topics, netiquette, legal information, privacy policy, etc.
You should keep your subscription notice: you may need it later to remember your password or to send a precise command to Sympa (example: signoff command). More generally, we advise you to keep all your subscription notices to mailing lists.
You can also subscribe to a list through the mailing list web interface. To do that, do as follows:
- Go to the list environment homepage and log on.
- Go to the information page of the list you want to subscribe to.
- In the left menu, click on the 'Subscribe' link.