Approval

The Approval tab is used to set the approval settings for a list. The fields available are explained in the table below:

Field Name Description

Is List Moderated

This defines whether message contributions sent via email will be automatically approved, or if they need to be approved by a list administrator. All messages sent through the Aurea List Manager administrator web interface require approval. Messages sent by those who are not allowed to post to the list will be automatically rejected. The options are:

  • Not Moderated: The messages never needs approval

  • Moderated: The messages always need approval
  • Number Moderated: New members need to have a number of messages approved before they may post without approval

A Not Moderated list allows all message contributions from those allowed to post to be automatically approved and be automatically distributed to the mailing list. This setting provides little security unless you use require a password in the body. For more information, see Security

A Moderated list will hold all message contributions until they are approved or rejected by a list administrator, or until the time set by Release Moderated Messages elapses. We recommend all messages be moderated if Scripting level is set to Full Scripting/Merge in Utilities > List Settings > For Programmers

A Number Moderated list holds the first few message contributions of members for approval, like a Moderated list. Thereafter, they will be able to contribute messages without needing approval. The number of approvals new members need is set by the next field, Approve # for Number Moderated

If the Moderated setting is changed to Number Moderated after the list is created and people have joined, only the members who join after the change will be Number Moderated. The pre-existing members will be considered as having passed their initial approval requirements. If the Moderated setting is changed from Number Moderated to another setting, the new setting will apply and members who still had a number of messages to be approved will instead be held to the new Moderated setting

List administrators who have their settings defined to receive Admin Mail will receive an email notice when a message has been contributed and needs approval. The list administrator will then use either Mailings > Need Approval or email commands to approve or reject the message contributions. Or, if the mailing list is set to automatically Release Moderated Messages, the list administrator does not need to do anything for moderated messages to be approved: the messages will be automatically approved after the release period has passed.

By default, this setting is set to Moderated for all lists except for unmoderated discussion lists.

Approve # for Number Moderated

If Is List Moderated is Number Moderated, this setting defines the number of message contributions that new members need to have approved before they can contribute without being held for approval. If the Moderated setting is not set for Number Moderated, this field has no effect.

Automatically Release Unmoderated Messages

This defines the amount of time that should elapse before messages held for approval are automatically approved if the list's Is List Moderated setting is set to Moderated or Number Moderated

For example, if the release period is set to The Same Day, messages held and waiting for approval will be automatically approved at midnight, the day of their contribution. The release feature allows list administrators to do nothing in the normal course of running their mailing lists. The list administrator will receive a copy of the message to be approved via email and if the message is acceptable, the list administrator does nothing and the message is approved that night. On the other hand, if the message is not acceptable, the list administrator has until midnight to reject the message

If the list administrator does not wish to use a release period, they can set it to Approval is Always Needed, which is the default for all lists

Messages pending approval or automatic approval will be viewable in Mailings > Approval, not Mailings > Scheduled

Automatically Release Messages At

If a moderated message is set to automatically release after a certain number of days, this setting determines the default time at which it will be released

For example, if you set the time to 10 am., and Release Moderated Messages to The same day, then Aurea List Manager will set all moderated messages submitted to this list to automatically approve at the next time 10 am occurs. If you submit a message at 11 am. it will be set to automatically approve the next day at 10 am. If you submit the message at 9 a.m. it will automatically approve an hour later, at 10 am