LISTSERV mailing lists

Requests to establish a LISTSERV mailing list must be made by a full-time faculty or staff member. Each e-mail list must have a full-time faculty/staff person who makes a commitment to maintain the list, is the "owner of record" responsible for the list, and is a member of the discussion group.

In some cases, CNS provides, without charge, electronic addresses of computer users for the purpose of establishing LISTSERV mailing lists. CNS will not provide, without charge, electronic addresses for units to use in establishing e-mail lists for their own use. The distinction here can be a fine one: consider a LISTSERV used to distribute official departmental notices to which only the department head can contribute. To make a distinction, CNS chooses to regard LISTSERV mailing lists as vehicles for two-way or multi-way communication.

Accordingly, CNS will cooperate to establish LISTSERV mailing lists for classes from class list files. When such class LISTSERV mailing lists are established by CNS, all class members are included in them, regardless of any individual requests for privacy of a K-State eID. Confidentiality is maintained by making the list owners (usually the class professor and graduate assistants) the only people who may retrieve the list membership.

For all other LISTSERV mailing lists, if the list is one-way, i.e. members are excluded from making contributions to the list content, then it is just a covert e-mail list and CNS won't provide any list of electronic addresses without charge. An open list to which members can contribute discussion content is a real LISTSERV mailing list, and CNS will cooperate in providing electronic addresses for the list, without charge. However, in such instances CNS will not provide the e-mail addresses for individuals who have requested that their K-State Computing IDs be kept private. Further, the list owners will be responsible for maintaining the currency of the list membership.

Inappropriate mass mailing is prohibited. This includes multiple mailings to newsgroups, mailing lists, or individuals -- and is also known as spamming, flooding, or bombing.