Email > About Mailing Lists A variety of methods is available to communicate with a group of people rather than an individual. Personal Address Book Most mail programs include addressbook features that allow the creation of group addresses. If you are the only person who will need to use and manage the mailing list, and the size of the list is fairly small, this may be the simplest method. Different mail programs may have different limits on the number of addresses you can include in a list. Simple Mailing Lists A simple mailing list is an email address assigned to a group of people; when a message is sent to the group address, it is delivered to all the people on the list. CUIT creates and manages membership of simple mailing lists. Simple mailing lists are best used for lists up to about 50 people. Managed Mailing Lists Managed mailing lists provide more features than simple lists, such as subscribe/unsubscribe functions, archiving, and moderation. Columbia provides several different mananged mailing list systems: Majordomo (used by most club and department lists), Mailman (currently in testing), and Listserv (official lists, e.g. all Columbia faculty). Once CUIT creates a managed list for you, you will be able to manage a number of features yourself. Majordomo can accommodate lists of up to about 1,000 people; Mailman will be able to accommodate lists of up to about 5,000 people. CourseWorks CourseWorks has a class email feature that allows instructors to send mail to all of the students in a class. Using a Web Page to Post Announcements A web page can be used to post regular announcements, avoiding the need to maintain an address list. If your group wants a web page, contact the CUIT Client Service Center. This is the best method to use if the number of people you want to reach is very large, not well defined, or includes people who may not use email. Public Folders Public folders can be used to give multiple people access to the same mailbox. They exist in public space, i.e. not in any one individual's personal email space, and are used for official University business. They must be requested from CUIT. Public Folders are best used for groups of up to 10 people.

Request a Mailing List Manage List Membership Tell me about... Simple Mailing Lists Majordomo Mailing Lists Public Folders