Mailing Lists

Sending mass communications via email is an important and valuable tool, but with it comes responsibility, risk, and repercussions. Those responsible for sending mass emails and mailing list owners should review the below information to ensure they understand the issues and best practices for using mailing lists, especially when non-LBL recipients are involved.

Spam or Junk Email

Unsolicited messages sent in bulk are Spam or Junk Email. Different individuals can have varying sensitivities to what they consider spam, but there are real consequences for the laboratory if our domains (lbl.gov, nersc.gov, es.net, etc) become associated with sending spam. List owners/managers should take precautions to ensure their lists cannot be used for sending spam, and that their legitimate messages are not interpreted as spam by the recipients.

Repercussions of sending Spam

Reputation

The Lab's reputation can be be damaged if you send spam from a Lab domain. If a Lab domain sends spam it communicates that we endorse sending spam, or have poor controls to prevent sending spam. We should strive to be responsible "digital citizens" by following the internet etiquette of not sending unsolicited messages.

Filters, Blacklists, and Scores 

Recipients who interpret messages they receive as spam will take actions such as flagging or reporting the message as spam, blacklisting the mailing list address, or blacklisting our domains. The impact of this can snowball over time and affect all Lab users, as some anti-spam technology uses "scores" to make decisions about whether to accept messages from domains or IP addresses. If a large number of recipients flag a message as spam, it can harm the Laboratory's score and affect delivery of unrelated message from other users in the future.

Best Practices

1. Opt-in, ideally with confirmation

Recipients should opt-in to joining mailing lists or receiving mass emails; they should not be added to email lists or mailed in bulk without explicitly agreeing to receive email. Ideally, they should also be required to confirm their email address before being added to the list to avoid someone who is not the owner of the email address adding it to a list.  Some systems will do this automatically so new members receive an email with a unique link to verify they own the email address.

2. Provide an easy way to unsubscribe

A method to unsubscribe, usually via clicking a link or replying to the list address, should be easy to use and obvious to recipients.

3. Restrict sending to the list

This is especially important for large lists. You should restrict who can send messages to your mailing list, such as only allowing list owners/managers, or manually vetted members whom you trust (though even trusted members can have their accounts/computers compromised and used for sending spam/malicious emails to the list).

In some cases, you may need to allow all members to send to a list (such as a discussion group), but in this case you should require senders to meet certain criteria (like extra email address confirmation, duration of membership, etc). In almost every case, you should not allow non-members to send to the list.

4. Follow common mailing list etiquette 

Many websites discuss common mailing list etiquette and so we won't attempt to reproduce them in full here, but generally these include: not sending attachments, not sending one-line emails with no useful content, and not using the list for purposes other than what the recipients subscribed to.

5. Follow guidelines for crafting mass emails

We've assembled some tips to Prevent Emails from Looking Phishy, including specific examples of good and phishy looking emails.

6. Ensure the list follows policy 

Since emails to and from the list use the Lab's IT resources, ensure they follow Acceptable Use of Information Technology.