Help Using the Web Interface to the MGI E-mail List Service

The MGI E-mail list service currently hosts the following public lists to serve the genetics research community:

This document provides information on the following operations and options:

Each page in the web interface includes a Mouse Genome Informatics banner which links to the MGI home page. The bottom of each page includes a link to the MGI E-mail List Service menu and a link to this help document.

Access an MGI E-mail List

  1. Go to the MGI E-mail List Service menu
  2. Click on an MGI list name, mgi-list or mgi-technical-list.
  3. If you are a subscriber, enter your E-mail address on the appropriate field. (You do not need a password; our lists are available to the public.)
  4. Click on the button to Enter the list you selected.
The menu for your selected list will be displayed. This page provides options to read messages, create a new message, view or change your subscriber settings, or unsubscribe from the list.

Note: If you are simply interested in reading the current list of messages, or searching the archive, you can always access the list by clicking the button to visit the the list without joining. The lists are "open" and non-members may visit. As a "visitor", you have the options to read messages and search for them but you cannot create new messages.

Subscribe to a list

  1. Open the list menu for a list.
  2. Click the Join (list) button.
    The "Join (list)" page will be displayed.
  3. Enter your E-mail address and name.
  4. Enter or select values for other options as described below:
    Password Not recommended. Our lists are open to the public and do not require a password. If you define a password, you will have to enter your password every time you enter a list.
    Status (the selected option for receiving list mail in your mailbox) Options for receiving list mail in your mailbox:
    • mail: receive messages as they are contributed.
      This is the default selection. You receive messages in your mailbox as they are sent.
    • digest: one daily message with all the contributions for that day.
      You receive one message file per day in your mailbox. That file contains all the messages sent to the list that day
    • index: one daily message with only the subject lines for that day
      The one message you receive just gives you the subject lines for the messages. If you want to see the messages, you have to visit the web site for the list.
    • nomail: receive no mail from the list
      No list messages are sent to your mail box; you use the web interface to see list messages.
    See your messages By default, you will see the messages you send to the list. You can choose not to receive a copy.
    AcknowledgementBy default, the system will not notify you when a message has been successfully sent. You can choose to receive such an acknowledgement.

    Unsubscribe to a list

    1. Access a list.
    2. Click on Leave (unsubscribe).

    You can also unsubscribe via E-mail.

    At the top of every E-mail you receive from a list you are given a "List-Unsubscribe" address. Merely sending an E-mail to this address will unsubscribe you from the list. Some E-mail tools hide this address but you can find it by viewing the message's full headers.

    Or send an E-mail to lists@lists.informatics.jax.org with
    unsubscribe
    in the body of the message.

    Send a Message to a List

    1. Access a list.
    2. Click on Create a New Message.
    3. Type subject and text of the message
    4. Click on Send Message Now. Note that Reset will clear the form and the Main Menu button will return you to the main menu for the list.

    You have the option to set word wrap on (the default value) or off. If you set word wrap to off, the message text will only include line breaks where you have explicitly hit the Return/Enter key when typing your message. When word wrap is set to on, the message text will include line breaks at points where the text has 'wrapped' to the next line as you typed the message.

    Read Messages

    On the Read Messages page for a list, a summary of available messages shows the number of messages and date range for all messages in the archive as well as the date range for the 200 messages available from the currently displayed list. By default, the messages are sorted by date so that the most recent messages are shown at the top of the list. Messages are also grouped by subject, so the first message on a particular subject is shown grouped with replies if there are any. You can scroll through the list, select an item, and click on the View Message button to read the message. The View Message window provides a display of a selected message and includes the following options:

    Search the Archive

    The "Read Messages" page also provides options for searching and sorting messages as described in the following table:

    Note: The options described below do not work as designed. Lyris is working on the problems which should be corrected in the next release of the Lyris web interface.

    Jump Messages You can choose to move forward or backward in the total message set. On the left, there is a drop-down list box used to select the number of messages to jump. To the left are the buttons Jump Forward and Jump Backward. If you are currently viewing the last message for that mailing list, only the Jump Backward button is displayed. Likewise, if you are currently viewing the first message for that mailing list, only the Jump Forward button will be visible.
    Search You can search for messages that contain words you specify in the message body, the header, or anywhere in the message.

    You can choose between searching for all, or any, of the specified words. If you select All These Words, only those messages containing all those words will be displayed. If you select Any Of These Words, all messages which contain at least one of those words will be displayed. If multiple items are returned, the message list will be sorted according to the number of matching words in the message with the highest number of matches at the top of the list. This search is applied to the entire archive. Note that Lyris indexing does not exclude 'stop words' such as 'the', 'and' or other repetitive words; it does, however, exclude numbers. So, for example, you cannot search for "129" although you can search for "129SV," (although the system is actually only searching for the word "SV").

    Jump To Date You can enter a date (yyyy/mm/dd) in the text box, and press the Jump to Date button to display a message set, with the first message of the set being on the given date. If there is no message for the date, the first message immediately after that date will begin the message set.
    Show The Show button is associated with options to set the number of messages included in the displayed list and to sort messages in the list. The default number of messages is 200 and the range of values is 5 to 500. The default sort option is "threaded by subject" whereby messages are sorted and grouped by subject. The original message on the subject is shown with subject line date and author; the "replies" are listed by author beneath. You can select the option to sort messages either by date or by author. When you select an option to set the number of message or sort the messages in a different way, click on the Show button to see the revised list.

    Change Your Member Settings

    Upon entering a list, the main menu for that list is displayed. Click on the "Member Settings" button to access your subscriber options. You can modify any of these settings as described in the section, "Subscribe to a List."

    Contact Information

    If you have questions or need assistance with the MGI E-mail list service, please contact the list manager at listmgr@informatics.jax.org

    About the E-mail Interface to this List Service

    The MGI E-mail list service is set up so that you can use either the web or the E-mail interface to perform the same basic operations. When a message is sent to the list, every subscriber will receive a copy of the message in his/her own mailbox. It's easy to reply to the list from the E-mail message. The Web interface is handy if you want to search the archive or want to access the list when E-mail is not convenient. For details on using the E-mail interface, send a message to list_help@lists.informatics.jax.org.