[Tools-discuss] Re: A message not from a list member

[Robert Sparks <[e-mail]>]

Yes, but...

For the "Yes" part:

On the setting page for a list, such as:

https://mailman3.ietf.org/mailman3/lists/tools-discuss.ietf.org/settings/automatic_responses

(change toos-discuss for whatever list you are managing)

there's a setting named "Notify users of held messages" - unless you or 
a previous administrator of the list has turned it off, it will be set 
to "Yes".

While you're there, also inspect the "Admin immed notify" setting which 
controls whether you get a separate and immediate message whenever one 
of these messages are held, or if you are only told in a daily digest.

Now the "but" part:

Having a message go into moderation because someone is not a subscriber 
is a very small edge (other reasons for moderating a message abound). On 
the page at, e.g.,

https://mailman3.ietf.org/mailman3/lists/tools-discuss.ietf.org/settings/message_acceptance

There is a setting named "Accept these non-members" which should contain 
a list of addresses or at mentions of other lists. With very few 
exceptions, that setting should include `@global-whitelist.ietf.org`. 
(Which will be renamed to global-allowlist when we can change that part 
of the infrastructure). That list includes every address that has passed 
postconfirm or that the datatracker knows about. It's a strange 
condition that a message can _get_ to your list from an address that 
hasn't met one of those two conditions. (It can happen when someone has 
created a datatracker account or passed postconfirm within the last day 
as the global-whitelist is reconstructed daily). Thus, you shouldn't be 
seeing this very often at all, and if you are, please ask for help.

RjS

On 8/28/25 7:33 AM, Rifaat Shekh-Yusef wrote:
> Hi,
>
> As chairs, we sometimes get a message that someone sent a message to a 
> list they are not a member of, and we need to take action to handle 
> such a message.
> Does the sender get a notification too that explains that the message 
> was not sent to the list and that they need to subscribe first to be 
> able to send a message to the list?
>
> Regards,
>  Rifaat
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------
> Tools-discuss mailing list -- [e-mail]
> To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]
> https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/tools-discuss/