General Terms and Conditions (Mailing Lists)
Date: 20.12.2018
1. User ID
The service is available to all projects and facilities of Münster University. It may only be used for purposes directly related to work, research or study at Münster University. At least one member of Münster University must be responsible for the respective mailing list. This is documented by the entry of a valid central user ID at Münster University as administrator of the list (more precisely: by the central e-mail address belonging to the user ID). Alumni may not be the sole administrators of lists. The list administrator himself/herself is responsible for the up-to-dateness and validity of the registered e-mail address(es)..
2. Application/Setup
The request for a mailing list is made informally by e-mail to the administrator of the list server (mailman@uni-muenster.de). In the e-mail the desired name of the list, the purpose, the requesting project or institution as well as the responsible administrator with his e-mail address are to be indicated. Aliases should not be entered here. The list name must contain (at least) one minus sign and must not contain a dot. The list will be established after receipt and review of the application. The administrator automatically receives an e-mail with the access data. When setting up a list for the first time, only one administrator is entered. This administrator can later add further administrators, even with non-Münster University addresses. The list is created in a standard configuration. Apart from generating the list, no further configuration of the list is carried out by the CIT. The configuration and operation of the list is carried out by the registered administrator(s). However, the CIT is available for consultation during configuration.
3. SPAM and Virus Filtering
E-mails send to mailing lists - or to university e-mail addresses belonging to mailing lists (-owner etc.) - are always checked for SPAM and viruses. Detected SPAM and viruses are automatically deleted without further notification. By using the list server service, the administrator accepts these conditions.
4. Subscriber Lists
4.1 Manual Entry
Subscribers can subscribe themselves to mailing lists or be subscribed by the list administrator. Except for public lists, it is recommended to verify subscription requests automatically and to have them confirmed by the administrator/moderator in addition. The corresponding setting in the list is set by default when the list is created.
4.2 Automatically Maintained Subscriber Lists
In addition to the normal manual maintenance of subscriber lists, a list can also be filled automatically with the members of one or more user groups. In this case, however, the list contains only members of the groups, i.e. a mixture of the two methods is not possible. The corresponding user groups must be specified in the application.
In the case of automatic provisioning, however, the list administrator must perform some preparatory work before filling with subscribers can take place. After the list has been set up by the CIT, the administrator must decide whether new members should receive a welcome message. He/she can also configure a note that the subscription cannot be unsubscribed in the normal way, but can be set for automatically maintained lists via the IT Portal in the submenu e-mail distribution list. He/she should also set the subscription rules in the list configuration so that a manual entry only takes place after confirmation by the administrator. Subscription requests should be rejected by the administrator, otherwise the subscription would be deleted after the next (script-controlled) provisioning run. It is a good idea not to make the lists known via the list server page.
5. Moderation
The administrator is obliged to ensure that requests for moderation are processed regularly. He can delegate the moderation to moderators registered by him.
6. Archives
If the list is archived, the administrator is obliged to regularly check the archives for unwanted emails and delete them. Please note: Archives can be public or private. Contents of public archives can be found via search engines (Google etc.).
7. Deletion of Lists
The administrator is obliged to inform the CIT if a list is no longer needed and can be deleted. Before this notification, the administrator must remove all subscribers from the list. The CIT will delete the list including any existing archives. The notification can also be sent by signed e-mail. In this case, it is not necessary to remove the subscribers. The CIT automatically checks the lists several times a year for the validity of administrator IDs or e-mail addresses. If mailing lists without a valid address of an administrator from the domain unimuenster.de are found, the list including any existing archives can be deleted without further notification.