Mailing Lists (ListServ)
ListServ is Concordia's new electronic mailing list software, replacing Majordomo. It allows a sender to send one email to the list, which will be distributed to many individuals (subscribers to that list).
There are new features that were not available with Majordomo, such as:
- List owner can now manage subscribers (add/remove/mass subscription) of their list via the Web interface
- List owner can compose (text/html) and send to their list via the Web interface
- List owner can authenticate using their Concordia Exchange email address and password
- A list can have multiple list owners (each list owner must have a valid Exchange email account)
- List subscribers can authenticate using their Concordia Exchange email address and password then manage their subscription
Who can use it?
Faculty, staff, and graduate students who have a valid Exchange email account.
How much does it cost?
There is no cost associated with this service.
How to get it?
To request the creation of a new mailing list, send an email to help@concordia.ca with the following information:
- List name (no space and special characters except dash, e.g., CONCORDIALISTSERVSUPPORT)
- List short description (1 line): A brief description about the list and what it's for
- List description (if different from short description, can be multiple lines): If there is a longer description and about list
- List owner(s)'s email addresses, must be Concordia Exchange addresses
- Is it going to be a private or a public (With confirmation) list?
- Will it be moderated? If so, who will be the moderator(s)?
- Who can join the list? 1/ Anyone, 2/ By List Owner (People request to subscribe, Owner must approve), or 3/ Closed (Cannot subscribe, only Owner can add)
Service availability
24/7
Maintenance window
All maintenance will be performed outside of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Note: To request a change to the list configuration after the list is created, list owners should send a request to help@concordia.ca.
FAQ
- Open https://lists.concordia.ca
- Enter your Concordia email address (firstname.lastname@concordia.ca)
- Password is your Netname password
Notes:
- Only Concordia users with a current valid Exchange email account can login to ListServ.
- Non-Exchange users/email addresses might be able to subscribe to lists, but list owners must have a current valid Exchange email account.
- Using email commands: if you know a mailing list's name, you can subscribe to it using your email (Concordia Exchange account, or others, e.g., ENCS/Hotmail/Yahoo/Gmail, etc.).
For example, for a mailing list called “CONCORDIALISTSERVSUPPORT”
- Compose an email to send to listserv@lists.concordia.ca.
- Email Subject: Listserv
- In the email body, simply put the following:
SUBscribe CONCORDIALISTSERVSUPPORT Your Name

You will receive an automated email shortly with a confirmation link. You must click on this link to complete the subscription.

- Using the web interface: if you have an Exchange account and can login to https://lists.concordia.ca and know which list(s) you would like to subscribe to.
- Click on “Subscriptions” under “Subscriber Options”
- Click on the menu (three dashes to the right)
- Click on “Search Archives” then look through the list of lists. Locate the one to subscribe to and click on it.
- Click on the menu (three dashes to the right), then click “Subscribe or Unsubscribe”
- On the next screen, verify the information, then click “Subscribe” and follow the instructions.
- Using the web interface, if you have an Exchange account and can login:
- Login to ListServ
- On the top navigation bar, click on “Subscriber's Corner”
- You'll find the list(s) you're currently subscribed to
- Click the checkbox next to the list(s) you want to unsubscribe from, then from drop down select “Unsubscribe” then click “Submit”

- Using your email (Concordia Exchange account, or others, e.g., ENCS/Hotmail/Yahoo/Gmail, etc.) you can unsubscribe if you know a mailing list's name
For example, to unsubscribe from a mailing list called “CONCORDIALISTSERVSUPPORT”
- Compose an email to send to listserv@lists.concordia.ca.
- Email Subject: Listserv
In the email body, simply put the following and send:
SIGNOFF CONCORDIALISTSERVSUPPORT

- You will receive an automated email confirming the unsubscribe:

- Using the web interface, once you're logged in
- On the top navigation bar, click on “Subscriber's Corner”
- You'll find the list(s) you're currently subscribed to
- Click on “Post” next to the list you want to send to

- Compose the message then click “Send Message.”
- Using your email (Concordia Exchange account, or others, e.g., ENCS/Hotmail/Yahoo/Gmail, etc.), you can also unsubscribe from a mailing list, if you know its name.
For example, for the mailing list called “CONCORDIALISTSERVSUPPORT,” the email address of this list is CONCORDIALISTSERVSUPPORT@lists.concordia.ca.
Compose then send your message to CONCORDIALISTSERVSUPPORT@lists.concordia.ca
- Open https://lists.concordia.ca and log in
- Because you are a list owner, there's an added top navigation menu called “List Management,” click on it and select “Subscriber Management”:

- In Subscriber Management, you can:
- Search for people in your list then unsubscribe (Delete),
- Add individual subscribers to the list,
- Subscribe new members in bulk by preparing a CSV file.
In order to add or remove an owner from a mailing list, please send an email to help@concordia.ca with the full name and email address of the individuals that will have to be added/removed.
In order to use a command, please send an email to listserv@lists.concordia.ca with the command in the body of the email only.
Join a list | subscribe [listname] Firstname Lastname (e.g., subscribe g-h-mead John Doe) |
Leave a list | signoff [listname] (Or leave all lists on the server:) signoff * (Or leave all LISTSERV lists in the network:) signoff * (netwide) |
Look at your subscription options (which may be changed with the “set” command) | query [listname] (Or to query all lists you are subscribed to on that server:) query * |
Receive the list in digest format (multiple messages compiled into a single daily or weekly mailing) | set [listname] digest |
Cancel digest format; receive the list as separate mailings | set [listname] nodigest |
Suspend mail temporarily (without unsubscribing) | set [listname] nomail |
Resume receipt of messages | set [listname] mail |
Receive copies of your own messages | set [listname] repro (Or to receive simply an automatic acknowledgement that your message has been sent to the list, use:) set [listname] ack |
Do not receive copies of your own messages | set [listname] norepro (To not receive an automatic acknowledgement that your message has been sent to the list, use:) set [listname] noack |
Obtain a list of subscribers | review [listname] (Can also be sorted by name or by country:) review [listname] (by name (Or specify more than one sort field at once:) review [listname] (by (country name) |
Conceal your address, so that it does not appear on the list of subscribers | set [listname] conceal (To reverse this command, use:) set [listname] noconceal |
Obtain a list of lists maintained by the list server | lists To obtain a list of all known LISTSERV lists, send the command lists global To search for LISTSERV lists with a given keyword or character string in the description, send the command lists global /[keyword] |
Obtain a list of archive files for a particular list | index [listname] |
Retrieve an archive file | get [filename] [filetype] where the filenames and filetypes for archive files are given as results of an "index [listname]" command. (e.g., get g-h-mead log9706c) |
Search the archives for keywords or user names | LISTSERV has a sophisticated and powerful search engine, using a batch-coded search language to construct queries: search [word1 [word2 [...]]] in [listname] from [date1] to [date2] -- or -- search [word1 [word2 [...]]] in [listname] from [date1] to today -- or -- search [word1 [word2 [...]]] in [listname] from today-30 -- or -- search [word1 [word2 [...]]] in [listname] from [date1] to [date2] where sender contains [xxxx] and/or subject contains [yyyy] These commands have to be sent as single lines with no carriage returns. Boolean combinations, nesting with parentheses, and a great number of other capabilities are supported. For a full description of LISTSERV search functions, including information on how to retrieve search results, send an "info database" command. |
Retrieve messages from the archives | getpost [listname] [itemnumber] where item number "itemnumber" will be given as part of search results for keywords in these respective messages. For a full description of LISTSERV search functions, including information on how to retrieve search results, send an "info database" command. |
Obtain detailed archive search and retrieval information | info database |
Send multiple commands at once | e.g., set [listname] repro noack get [listname] log9706a log9706b getpost [listname] [ref1] [ref2] [ref3] (Or send multiple lines of commands in a single message, e.g.:) set [listname] repro get [filename] log9706a |
Obtain a detailed list of LISTSERV user commands | info refcard |
Obtain a list of basic commands | help (Or to obtain a list of available "info" topics:) info |