Archives are useful for new users or current users who may have missed recent messages. For more information on Kavi® Mailing List Manager archives, see Mail Archives.

If you want your mailing list to have any archives at all, you must set the 'List Archives' option to one of the settings where -a is set in the ezmlm-make argument string. There are three of these settings, providing three different levels of access control to the raw archives: public (i.e., anyone can access them, subscriber only (i.e., subscribers and higher level users have access) and moderators only (the most restricted level).

On the other hand, archives do consume some system resources, so if you are adding a custom list type for lists that will not require archives, you should select the 'Do not archive list messages.' setting (ezmlm-make argument = -A). When this is set, no archives will be created for lists of this type whatsoever and any other settings related to archives will be ignored.

A digest is created by rolling up many mailing list email into a single email. By default, a new digest is generated when 30 messages, 48 hours, or 64 kilobytes of message body text have accumulated since the last digest. Digest subscription is an alternative to regular subscription. Instead of receiving every message posted to the list singly as it comes in, digest subscribers receive multiple messages processed into a single batch periodically. Users have the ability to select from these two options when managing their subscriptions.

When new messages are posted to the list, they can be added to the web-accessible HTML archives immediately or on a periodic basis.

If this option is set so that new messages are archived immediately when posted to the list, email threads in the web-viewable archives will be kept current. All default list types use this setting so that newly posted messages are instantly available. This allows senders to use the archives to confirm that their posts went through and allows subscribers who may have missed the latest messages to view them in the Web archives. Instant archiving does consume more system resources than periodic updates, so if your list has very low traffic, you may want to consider resetting this option.

If this option is set so that new posts are added periodically, it will consume less resources, but will cause a lag in new posts being added to the web-viewable archives. This can be confusing for list users who are trying to follow a thread or confirm a post. The default interval for periodic updating is one hour, so at this setting users trying to follow a thread through the archives might have an hour lag-time until the latest batch of messages in the thread become available. This is less of an issue on lists with infrequent posts.

This option is dependent on the existence of archives (i.e., the -a switch is set). If archives do not exist, this option will be ignored.

A kill list, or blocklist, is used to store lists of email addresses belonging to users who are known violators of list policy. When enabled (ezmlm-make string includes the -k switch), any email originating from user addresses on the kill list will be automatically deleted, effectively barring the user from posting to the list or subscribing via email. Unfortunately, the user has only to acquire a new email address to work around the feature.

The kill list feature is not currently supported through any Kavi interfaces except those that have been custom-configured, but Kavi does employ the Spamhaus blocklist to filter all incoming email for sites it maintains. For more information, see Virus Scanning and Spam Blocking in the Concepts documents.

When this feature is disabled, email messages are sent only as plain-text messages with a US-ASCII character set encoding. Messages delivered in this format can easily be read by any mail reader software or mail archive program. The drawback is that this does not support languages that use non-Roman character sets.

When this feature is enabled, email messages can include the UTF-8 mail encoding format.

When enabled (i.e., the ezmlm-make argument string that determines list type configuration includes the -f switch), a prefix will be prepended to the email subject line of every email sent through the list. By default, the prefix is the list name enclosed in square brackets, but this can be configured for an individual list through the Edit List Text tool.

Email subject-line prefixes consume some of the limited space available in an email subject line, but are still used by many lists because the prefix is so handy for list users when sorting and filtering list messages.

If this option is set to 'Yes', lists based on this type will accept public admin requests in the form of email address commands, including requests to subscribe or unsubscribe and requests to retrieve the archives. For more information, see Email Address Commands. This setting is used for the public default list types, but not for the private types. For more information, see Default List Types.

Most lists use the open subscription model, which allows users to subscribe to the list directly through the web site or by email, if list rules allow it.

The closed subscription model doesn't allow users to subscribe directly. Instead, subscribers can only be added by administrators. Lists that use the closed subscription model are often called 'invitation only' lists. They are used for mailing lists that serve small, high-level groups such as an organization's board of directors, technical or marketing committees and task-oriented teams.

Trailer text is generally used to add information about a list, including how to unsubscribe from the list and how to get help, which helps to prevent your messages from being perceived as spam. For more information, see the section on Subscription confirmation and easy opt-out in the Concepts document What You Need to Know About Spam.

These default instructions will only work if the underlying list type is configured to accept public subscription requests. If the underlying list type is NOT configured to accept public subscription requests, the default text should be revised using the Edit List Text tool. It should include the URL for the My Mailing Lists tool on your Web site that can be copied and pasted into a browser window.

This option is set in the list type to define what action is taken when list users at different levels send messages to the list. Posting access is defined by a combination of the -M/m, -O/o and -U/u switches in the ezmlm-make argument string. This is the most complex aspect of list configuration, but can be simplified by viewing the information in Posting Access Tables. To view all options at once for comparison sake, see Posting access matrix.