BIGLIST Internet Mailing List Services: Pre-Approving a Message

What is pre-approving a message?

As described in our page on approving bounced messages, there are a number of reasons that our software can redirect a message to the list-owner for approval. One way to deal with them is to post to the list, let our software bounce, the message, and then follow the instructions on approving bounced messages.

To avoid the extra step, the list-owner can pre-approve a message by inserting information that tells BIGLIST not to bounce the message for approval, but rather to go ahead and send it to listmembers.

How to pre-approve a message.

There are 2 ways you can format a message so that our server knows it's okay to send it to everyone on your list without checking.

If you can edit the headers of your mail message, add the line
```
Approved: PaSsWoRd
```
(where PaSsWoRd is your list approval password). The headers consist of all the text before the first blank line (like the Subject: and From: lines. Most email programs automatically separate them out from the body of the message. When the message gets posted, the above line will be removed by BIGLIST software.
As the FIRST line in the BODY of the message, insert the line
```
Approved: PaSsWoRd
```
followed by a blank line, followed by your message. Again, this is your list approval password, and the line is removed by BIGLIST software before the message goes out to the list.

The list approval password.

Why the emphasis on the list approval password when you're pre-approving a message for the list? In a nutshell, you want to make sure it's different from the list password which you use to make changes to the configuration to your list. If you accidentally send the approval password to the list, there's less damage that can be done by a mischievous listmember.

If you ever do send any password to the list, you should change it immediately. You can do this by going to your list admin page (http://www.biglist.com/lists/yourlist/admin/) and changing the value of approve_passwd. If you need help, you can always contact us and we'll be happy to assist.

Additional information.

Approving Messages: Our list management software may bounce certain messages that people attempt to send to the mailing list. If you're getting a message saying that an email was bounced (possibly even one that you, the list-owner, tried to send), check here for ways to get your message sent successfully, including a simple web interface.

Approving MIME-Encoded Messages: If you are having trouble sending messages to your list members because your mail software is making everything (even plain text documents) a MIME attachment, check here for tips on what you can do.