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How do I find out what lists are available at NIH?
Point your browser at the NIH LISTSERV Home Page and click "List of Lists" You can search for a list by keyword, or browse alphabetically.
I can't find a particular list on the NIH Lists of Lists. I know the list exists. Why isn't it there?
There are a couple of possibilities. The list may be confidential, meaning the list owner has decided to hide the list from public view. Confidential lists do not appear on the List of Lists. However, if you know the exact name of the list, you can view the list web page, if it has one (not all lists do, by the way). Click the "Access unlisted lists" on the right hand side link next to the List of Lists (it's just on the right hand side of the List of lists). Type in the exact name of the list in the "List Name" field, and press the Search button.
If you still cannot find your list, there are two likely reasons: 1) you are misspelling the list name, or 2) the list does not have archives, and therefore does not appear on the website. If you really get stuck, contact the LISTSERV Administrators at [email protected].
How can I find mailing lists on a specific topic?
On the NIH LISTSERV site, there is a search tool right at the top of the List of Lists. The search tool lets you look for specific keywords in the list name or list description.
In addition, there are a number of sites on the Web that allow you to search for mailing lists, not just at NIH but all over the world. We have links to several of them on the NIH LISTSERV Home Page. Point your browser at the NIH LISTSERV Home Page and click "Mailing List Search Sites." You will be connected to a page of links to search sites for mailing lists all over the world.
How do I subscribe to a LISTSERV list?
Send e-mail to [email protected] with the following text in the message body:
subscribe listname your name
where listname is the name of the list you wish to subscribe to, and your name is your name. (LISTSERV will get your e-mail address from the "From:" address of your e-mail message.)
How do I unsubscribe from a LISTSERV list?
To unsubscribe from a list, send e-mail to [email protected] with the following text in the message body:
unsubscribe listname
where listname is the name of the list.
How do I send mail to a list?
To send mail, or "post," to a list, address your e-mail message to:
listname@list.nih.gov
where listname is the name of the list to which you wish to post.
Help! I'm trying to unsubscribe from a list, but LISTSERV is telling me I'm not subscribed. I've been getting mail from that list for years. What's wrong?
Most NIH email users have multiple "synonymous" email addresses. You may think you're subscribed under a particular address when in fact you are subscribed under a different one. Or, your e-mail address may have changed since you subscribed. This can cause LISTSERV not to "recognize" you when you make a request.
Your best bet is to contact the list owner and ask for assistance. Send e-mail to:
listname[email protected]
(where listname is the name of the list).
How do I stop my mail while I'm away from my office?
Send e-mail to [email protected] with the following text in the message body:
set listname nomail
To restart your mail, send the following message:
set listname mail
My email address has changed. How do I update it?
To change your address on a specific list, drop an email to the list owner at listname[email protected] and ask for assistance.
To change your address on all NIH lists, point your browser at the NIH LISTSERV Home Page and click "For General Users," then click "Change My Subscriber Address" and fill out the online form.
I subscribed to a list and I'm being inundated with mail. I'm interested in the list and don't want to unsubscribe. Any suggestions for lightening the load?
Send e-mail to [email protected] with the following text in the message body:
set listname mail digest
LISTSERV will consolidate the mail from that list into a single large message, usually once a day. You can then check the list of topics at the beginning of the message, or use the "find" command of your e-mail software to search for specific terms.
Why do I keep seeing mail from people on my list who are trying to unsubscribe?
That's because people confuse LISTSERV's address with the list address. To send mail to everyone on a list, address it to listname@list.nih.gov (where listname is the name of the list), or post from the website. To send a command to LISTSERV (such as a request to unsubscribe from a list), address it to [email protected].
Why did everyone on the list see a reply that I intended to be personal?
Some lists are set so that when you hit the reply button, your response automatically goes to the list. Next time you press the reply button, check the "To:" line of your response to see where it's going to be sent. If necessary, delete the "To:" address and type in the e-mail address of your intended recipient.
I sent an email message to several LISTSERV lists at once, but I only got one copy. I'm subscribed to all of the lists. What happened?
Chances are that you're seeing the effect of a recent change in how the NIH Microsoft Exchange system processes email. Microsoft recently added a filter designed to detect and eliminate "duplicate" messages. Here's how it makes your messages seem to disappear:
An email message is posted to several lists simultaneously. Joe is subscribed to several of the lists, and has an NIH Exchange account. Since Joe is subscribed to several of the lists, LISTSERV addresses several copies of the message to Joe, which are received by the NIH Exchange server. Since all the copies originated from the same message, they have the same Message ID (a unique identifier that is assigned to the message by the originator's email software or email server). The Exchange server "sees" these as duplicate copies, and forwards only the first one to Joe, discarding the rest. From the point of the Exchange server, this eliminates unnecessary load. Unfortunately, if you're the person "expecting" several copies of the message in order to verify that it went out properly, it can be unnerving.
This effect may be visible to recipients of list mail who use MS Outlook or MS Exchange email clients, or an email client (such as IMAP) that uses the NIH Exchange Hub as its mail server. Other mail systems may perform the same sort of duplicate elimination, although we are not aware of any at NIH that do. To make sure that the message actually reached all the lists to which it was sent, check the list archives.
Finally, it's worth noting that not all mail systems assign message-IDs to messages they send. So some duplicate messages from multiple lists (i.e., those sent from mail systems that don't assign message-IDs) may still appear in Exchange.
How can I contact the owner of a list?
To contact the owner of a list, send e-mail to listname[email protected] (where listname is the name of the list), and ask for assistance.
I have a question you didn't answer here. Where can I get more help?
Please contact NIH IT Service Desk
Need IT Support?
Submit a request onlinePhone:
Or You can directly contact the NIH LISTSERV Administrators at [email protected].
301-496-4357 (local)
866-319-4357 (toll-free)
301-496-8294 (TTY)
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