Mirroring External Mailing Lists (out) - A Non-Programmer's Guide to Web Crossing

Web Crossing allows you to not only archive mailing lists inside web forums, but also lets you do the reverse - sending messages posted to web forums out via email to a mailing list. This works in the opposite direction of mailing list archiving, as shown in figure 1.

Note that Web Crossing also has its own built-in email list server. You might find using the built-in server more convenient. It has many features that would be hard to duplicated with external mailing list servers, such as user-settable digest times, the ability to subscribe to individual discussions and email notifications with URLs back to the web forums. See section one for more information on setting up mailing lists using Web Crossing's built-in email list server.

A new message is posted to a discussion, inside a folder that has been set to send email out to a mailing list.
If the folder containing the discussion has been set to send email out then the posted message is queued by Web Crossing mail service for outgoing mail. No external mail server is required for this; Web Crossing has its own built-in SMTP server that sends email out directly. The outgoing message is given the same title as the title of the discussion.
Web Crossing sends the queued email message to the mailing list server.
The mailing list server sends the message on to all subscribers of the mailing list.

As an example, let's say we want to automatically send all messages posted to discussions in the Web Crossing "User Support" folder to a "User Support" mailing list. Web Crossing is subscribed to the mailing list with the email address usersupport@webxharbor.com.

Using this information, lets setup mail list sending inside the "User Support" folder inside Web Crossing.

First we go to the "User Support" folder and click on the small Edit button or the large Edit Folder button in the Toolbar. Then we select Mailing List Settings and enter the needed information, as shown in figure 2.

First, the Send messages checkbox is selected. This turns on and off the sending of messages from the current folder.
The email post address is just the address of the mailing list server.
The Reply-To address, if set, sends an extra Reply-to: header to the mailing list server. Most mailing list servers and mail client programs support this header. If present, it directs mail clients to reply to the specified address. This is most often used by mailing list servers to direct replies to the mailing list itself, rather than to the author of the original message.
The From address, if selected, causes the outgoing mail to appear as though it is from the specified address. This is useful when sending messages to a closed mailing list, assuring that the incoming mail messages appear to come from a known, registered mailing list subscriber, rather than from the actual author of the message (who may or may not be a subscriber of the mailing list.)

That is all that is needed. As soon as this is set, Web Crossing process each posted message, sending it to the outgoing mail queue to be sent using Web Crossing's built-in SMTP server.

Tip: You can test your email settings without an external mailing list server. All you really need is a mail account that allows POP3 access. You can even use a Web Crossing user account for this because Web Crossing can provide POP3 mail accounts for any or all users. You can send test mail directly to that mail account yourself and make sure it is received properly by Web Crossing's external mail list mirroring service.

When I post a message to a discussion, it gets sent out to the mailing OK. But then the mailing sends the message back again to Web Crossing and it ends up appearing twice! What can I do?

LetterRip Pro web site (for Mac OS)
ListSTAR web site (for Mac OS)
majordomo web site (for all systems)
onelist.com (a free mailing list server site)
listbot.com (another free mailing list server site)