Public Website & Notification Email Settings
The settings on this screen define certain general settings of the public website that LISTSERV Maestro automatically provides with the subscriber list (or list group).
- Public Visibility:
Open to everyone: The website login page, the subscriber area page and the subscribe pages are visible to everyone with access to their URLs. Everyone is able to login (if they already are subscribers) or to subscribe. Everyone may choose to subscribe to any of the available lists in the group.
Access for subscribers only: The website login page and the subscriber area page are visible to everyone with access to its URL. However, the subscribe pages are not visible to anyone. Therefore, existing subscribers (who have been added from inside of LISTSERV Maestro) are able to login to the subscriber area (and from there to subscribe to lists, if the subscriber area is associated with a list group), but it is not possible for a non-subscriber to subscribe. In other words: The list is (or all lists in the group are) "by invitation only".
Unsubscribes only: Only the special subscriber area message page is visible, none of the other subscriber area pages are visible to anyone, including the subscriber area page, the login page and the subscribe pages. (The message page is necessary because it is shown when users unsubscribe via the {{*UnsubscribeURL}} system drop-in.) This state is helpful while still preparing the website for first use or for subscriber lists or groups where individual subscribes by outside users are not desired (all subscription is solely administered from inside of LISTSERV Maestro, either through manual editing or via subscriber data importers).
In addition to choosing between the three options above, it is also possible to change the Runtime Status: To temporarily close the subscriber list (or all lists in the group), pick the Closed for maintenance option. The option picked for the settings above remains unchanged for lists (or groups) closed for maintenance, but all the visible access pages show a message that says the page has been temporarily closed for maintenance and to try again later. This is helpful when it is not desirable for subscribers to have access to the list, when at the same time maintenance (such as time-consuming imports or significant field changes) is ongoing.
Public Description: An optional public description that is visible externally to subscribers as the description of the website.
Access Pages Language: The language that is used to generate the access pages (the subscriber area pages). By default, only "English" is available. Other languages can be added by the LISTSERV Maestro administrator.
Subscriber Password: Select when the subscriber area password is to be defined by each subscriber. You can choose between No additional fields shown on subscribe page, defined later when needed for login and Defined through password and confirmation fields on subscribe page. This choice only affects how the initial password is defined when a user subscribes. In both cases, it is still possible for the subscriber to change his password at a later time.
If the password is defined already when subscribing, then the subscribe step has the additional inconvenience that the subscriber must also specify the password, but the first login will be quick and easy because the password is already defined. In comparison, if the password is defined later, when needed for the first manual login, then the subscribe step is more streamlined because the subscriber is not bothered to define a password. But the first login will be more inconvenient because then the subscriber will first have to define a password and confirm this password with a second confirmation email round-trip.
If your list group has a large number of lists that the subscribers can subscribe to or the lists have non-trivial subscription profiles that subscribers may want to edit on a regular basis, i.e. if you expect that your subscribers will login to the subscriber area regularly, then it is probably a good idea to use the "defined during subscribe" option. This is a bit more inconvenient during subscribe, but in such a situation you would expect your subscribers to need a password anyway, sooner or later, so defining it already during subscribe saves the subscribers from the hassle of having to go through an additional confirmation email round-trip before the first login.
If your list group has only a few lists with simple subscriber profiles, i.e. if you expect that, after subscribing, the users will usually not have to login to the subscriber area at all, then the "defined when needed" option is usually the best option, as it streamlines the subscribe process and moves the inconvenience of having to define a password to the login step that will usually not be encountered by most subscribers anyway.
Note: If the LISTSERV Interface Link option (see below) is enabled, then the only available choice for the subscription password is the No additional fields on subscribe page, defined later when needed for login option.Quick Login: Define if a special "quick login" option shall be available on the login page of the subscriber area. If checked, then an additional checkbox appears on the subscriber area login page. If a subscriber checks this additional option during login, then this login information is remembered by the system; therefore, when he visits the login page again (with the same browser on the same computer), the email address and password fields are already filled out and the subscriber only needs to click the [Login] button to login.
Notification Sender Address: The email address that is used as the "From:" address for all email sent "in the name" of the list(s), for example double opt-in confirmation messages. This address must be a valid Internet email address.
Notification Sender Name: The descriptive name associated with the address given above.