Approving Messages

There are several reasons why a message might be forwarded (bounced) to the list owner for approval:

Spam filters ocassionally trap a legitimate message. To ensure that legitimate messages are accepted, the mailing list software forwards all filtered messages to the list owner for review/approval as appropriate.
Some mailing lists are configured to accept mail from only subscribers or other 'recognized' addresses. Ocassionally a subscribers will attemp to post a message from another address (e.g. from work), these messages from an unrecognized address will be forwarded to the list owner for review/approval.
Sometimes a list will be configured as 'moderated'. In this case, all messges will be sent to the list owner for approval.

Before you can approve a message you should configure your mail program to facilitate the approval process.

Configuring your Mail Program

Assuming that you're using your CCN account to manage the list...

...if you are using another account with a different mail program you should check the documentation for your mail program and figure out how to add a custom header item...

The easiest way to manage a moderated majordomo mailing list is to add an "Approved: " line to your outgoing mail header.

The CSuite mail program (Pine) allows you to customize the outgoing mail header... the steps are reviewed below.

Majordomo will read the approve password from the message header and approve the request. In processing the request, majordomo will remove the password from the outgoing message.

Adding a Custom Header to Pine

To add an "Approved: " line to your outgoing messages...

start up Pine [go mail] and use the 'M'ain Menu option to select 's'etup and 'c'onfig.

scroll down (past the features list) to the "customized-hdrs" option. The available commands become...

=============================================================================
? Help       E Exit Config  P Prev      - PrevPage    A Add Value
             C [Change Val] N Next    Spc NextPage    D Delete Val  W WhereIs
=============================================================================

Use the 'A'dd option and enter "Approved" (without the quotes). You can add several custom "header lines" if you wish...

Note: Pine will only include these lines in the outgoing message if you have entered a value... in this case majordomo is expecting the password.

Approving BOUNCED messages...

When majordomo asks you to approve a message...

Use the 'f'orward command and send the message BACK TO THE MAILING LIST.
Move the cursor into the header area and use the ^r (Ctrl-r) command to expand the list of header items.
Insert the majordomo list password in the "Approved: " field.
Remove the 'mini' header that majordomo inserted - ALONG WITH ANY BLANK LINES AT THE TOP of the message... The following linesshould be removed:
```
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2000 03:53:07 -0300
From: listname-owner@chebucto.ns.ca
To: listname-owner@chebucto.ns.ca
Subject: BOUNCE listname@chebucto.ns.ca: Non-member submission
```
The original header which begins with a line similar to:
```
>From listname-owner@chebucto.ns.ca Sun Apr  9 03:53:07 2000
```
should be retained. This will ensure the message received by list memebers has the correct headers including the original senders info. If you remove the original header, it will appear as if the message came from you rather than the original sender.
In Pine, use ^x (Ctrl-x) to send the message BACK TO THE LIST".

If you are sending a message to the list yourself, you can place the password in the header and majordomo will not ask for an approval.