This information applies to: Old Mailman New Mailman
General policy
Mailman is a resource provided and operated with Washington State funds. Its use is governed by federal and state laws and policies, as well as University of Washington policies. You may establish and use Mailman lists only for activities related to UW research, education, or administration.
Mailman lists may be established for UW students, faculty, or staff who need a list to further their work at the University. Staff ownership and use of Mailman lists is subject to the approval of their departments and supervisors.
All Mailman lists must have at least one owner who is a current UW student, faculty, or staff. Additional owners do not have to be affiliated with the UW; however, all Mailman list owners must have a valid UW NetID, such as a sponsored UW NetID. Any list without a current UW student, faculty, or staff owner will be removed from the server by the system administrator.
Mailman lists that are not used for a period of two years will be removed from the server. Mailman class lists are removed after one year, regardless of activity.
Mailman owners agree to properly maintain their lists. This includes, but is not limited to, the following:
- Removing invalid member email addresses on a regular basis — for example, quarterly
- Reviewing and responding to held messages or subscription requests at least weekly
- Limiting the amount of spam that is distributed to list members
- Limiting the number of email messages sent to your list in a 24-hour period to 2,000
Email lists are intended for discussions and announcements created and sent by humans, not alerts generated by computers. Using a mail list to send system-generated messages can quickly lead to volume issues (see last bullet point above). Please ensure that you are using your Mailman lists to send only messages created by people, not machines.
These procedures are important because they help keep email flowing smoothly and keep the UW from being blacklisted as a source of spam. If list owners do not follow these procedures, they risk having their list disabled. UW Information Technology will issue advance warning to list owners before disabling the list. However, if a list is not properly maintained and causes the UW to be blacklisted, the list will be disabled immediately.
See Appropriate use guidelines for more information on usage policies and our Mailman Data Retention Policy for details about what content is retained and for how long.
Types of listservs and their uses
Unit listservs should be connected to the mission of that unit and of the University. As noted above, all listservs and posts created through the UW must comply with UW policies. This includes the policy on appropriate use of University technology resources, which is in alignment with state law and policy includes not using those resources for election-related activities or the solicitation of funds or support for outside organizations or businesses that do not have a formal relationship with the University. The use of listservs must also comply with all other relevant University policies, including but not limited to the Faculty Code, Student Conduct Code and policies prohibiting discrimination.
There are generally two types of listservs – those that all faculty, staff and/or students in a unit are required to be members of and those that are opt-in.
- Required listservs: These are listservs that are created by unit leadership and that automatically include all faculty, staff and/or students in a unit as members. These should only be used for the sharing of information that is directly related to the employee and/or student experience, such as unit announcements on policies, reminders of major deadlines, changes to normal operations, and other topics that are important to the operations of the unit. These listservs must be moderated to ensure compliance with their stated purpose and with policies on appropriate use of University technology resources. It is recommended that the number of people authorized to send to this listserv is limited to only those with a business need to do so and that moderation take place in the office of the leader of the unit.
- Opt-in listservs: These listservs can be created for the discussion of topics not directly relevant to the employee and/or student experience. For example, an opt-in listserv could be organized to discuss a certain academic discipline or issue. Because these listservs do not share information that is directly relevant to the employee and/or student experience, membership in these listservs is optional and they should not be named in such a way as to imply that they are official listservs, such as by using a unit’s name. These listservs still must be moderated to ensure compliance with policies on appropriate use of University technology resources, to promote adherence to the stated purpose of the listserv, and to further civil discourse and on-topic discussions. Because these listservs are optional, the rules around who is allowed to post may be determined by the listserv managers. Those rules and moderation of posts should be applied consistently and without regard to those managers’ views on the opinions expressed in posts so long as those posts comply with stated policies and the internal rules of the listserv in question.
Archive Policy
Archive size limit
Archives must be under 500 MB. If your list archive is 500 MB or larger, you will be asked to reduce the size by deleting messages or removing attachments.
Archive policy
Effective December 1, 2020, UW-IT will delete Mailman archives older than two years. This effort supports institutional priorities to reduce risk. After the initial removal of archives, this policy will be implemented on a monthly basis; as archives age beyond two years, they will be deleted.
Note: Mailman users are responsible for maintaining any content associated with a retention policy.
In order to comply with the University’s retention and email policies, we strongly encourage you to review the content of your Mailman archives, saving only the content that is still subject to retention, rather than simply downloading and storing all contents. Review the University Email Policy.
UW Records Management Services recommends storing exported messages with continuing retention requirements in a persistent, shared repository so that they can be located, accessed, and deleted per the retention schedule. Review these University-supported options for online storage.
See the Mailman archive FAQs for information on archives.
Data retention policy
Mailman owners are responsible for ensuring that emails with continuing retention requirements are transferred to a local storage location such as a network drive. For more information, see UW’s retention schedule.
| Examples of items that can be created and/or stored. |
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| What happens if an item is manually deleted? |
Mailing lists that are deleted by their owners will be deleted immediately. Note: Owners with list archives of 500 MB or larger will be asked to reduce archive size via deletion or removing attachments. |
| Does anything ever get automatically deleted? | To maintain a functional operating environment for Mailman, UW-IT periodically deletes obsolete lists and messages, per the following criteria:
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| If a user is no longer authorized to use Mailman what happens to their profile data and items they’ve created? |
Mailman does not store a user’s profile data, so it cannot be deleted. Mailman lists created by a user will persist as long as it has at least one owner who is affiliated with the UW. A user’s mailing list posts and responses will persist as long as a list is active and the owner has chosen to maintain it in an archive. |