This article guides you on discovering what All.Soton is and how it works, how to find a mailing list, and how to contact the list moderators when needed.

 

Introduction

Staff and students can communicate with specific university groups using the mailing list application All.Soton.

All.Soton mailing list memberships are built automatically on a nightly basis using a combination of data sources (phonebook, HR organisational data, student Banner data, and other sources). This ensures that All.Soton mailing lists stay up to date, saving time and accuracy over traditional mailing list systems. At present, All.soton contains over 20,000 mailing lists organised into a hierarchical structure. 

Main differences between All.Soton and lists.soton.ac.uk (also called Lists):

• All.soton mailing lists are automatically generated lists and target specific groups / teams within the university 
• Lists are manually created lists for a specific purpose / audience and are managed manually

 

Discover the dashboard

Once you access the All.Soton mailing list, you will see your dashboard.

It includes:

• A “search field”
• A preview of the mailing lists of which you are a member
• Your information
• Your details
• A list of quick links

Please note: you can update your university account using Subscribe.

 

Modules mailing lists

There are sets of lists for each module at the university. These are intended for student discussion and to enable lecturers to send information to their students.

There are 2 lists for each module:

"modulecode"@all.soton.ac.uk (for example, NURS3001@all.soton.ac.uk).

• This list includes all the staff and students on the module and it is for discussions. Any student on the module, or any member of staff, can post to it.
• Use this address if you want to contact students on a module.

"modulecode-instructors"@all.soton.ac.uk (for example: NURS3001-instructors @all.soton.ac.uk).

• This list includes only the staff/assistants teaching the module. Any student on the module can post to it.
• Use this to ask for help from the people teaching the module.

To find out more information, please visit the All.Soton/Modules page. 

 

Staff mailing lists

All.soton includes mailing lists for a multitude of different groupings of staff at:

• All levels of the university. All staff in that part of the university, however small. 
• Professional services: all staff from professional services are embedded in that part. Staff on different career paths (for example: ERE, MSA, or Clinical) are part of separate lists.
• Faculties
• Academic units 
• Research groups

Please note:

• Teaching staff lists include staff teaching at least one module this year.
• Academic staff lists include lecturers and professors, whether they are teaching this year or not.

You can reach all these lists from the “Mailing Lists” menu.

 

Building mailing lists

If you need to send an email to staff working in a particular building, there are mailing lists for:

• The occupants of every building in the University (for example: building-35@all.soton.ac.uk)
• Each group of the academic unit or professional service residing in each building (for example: isolutions-building-35@all.soton.ac.uk)
• A particular level of a building (for example: building-35-level-3@all.soton.ac.uk)

To see all the lists available, please select the option “Buildings” from the “Mailing Lists” menu.

---

Back to the top

 

How to find a mailing list

To find a mailing list you can either:

• Use the search tool
• Browse all the lists

Search for a mailing list

To search for a mailing list, use the search field at the top of your dashboard:

1. Enter a search term (for example, 'nursing')

2. Select the 'Search' button.

 
A list of matching results will be displayed. 

 

Browse the available mailing lists

1. Go to the navigation bar and open the “Mailing Lists” drop-down menu

2. Browse the mailing list hierarchy and select the one you need (for example: “Faculties”)

3. Use the drop-down links to browse the hierarchy of lists in the university. From these pages you can see:

1. Expandable categories of mailing lists for this point in the hierarchy
2. Subgroups of mailing lists that sit below this point in the hierarchy
3. Summary details about a mailing list – click for more details about the mailing list
4. A link to move up to the next level in the hierarchy

--- 

Back to the top 

 

Find out which mailing lists you are a member of

To view the mailing lists of which you are a member:

1. Visit the All.Soton homepage and log in if required

2. From the dashboard, go to the 'Mailing lists you're a member of' panel. This provides the details of all the mailing lists to which you belong. 

 

You can find more information about the roles and the building you are registered in from the section “Your information”:

• Roles: this section shows the information held about your role within the university.
• User profiles: this shows the information related to your university user account. You can edit or update the data appearing in the “User profiles” via Subscribe.
  
  

---

Back to the top   

 

Send a message to a mailing list

You can easily send an email to a mailing list. Once logged it to All.Soton, please:

1. Find the list’s address using the search function or browsing the Mailing list menu
2. Copy the address from the recipient field
3. Paste the address in your webmail service (for example, Outlook)
4. Send your message

Please note: most of the lists are moderated – that means that your message needs to be approved by the list moderators before being published.

---

Back to the top

 

Request a new mailing list

Since All.soton is automatically generated, it is only possible to add custom lists in exceptional circumstances. Any requests would need to be discussed with iSolutions directly before taking action.

An alternative is to use the Lists.soton service, which does allow for the generation of custom lists. 

---

Back to the top

 

Members and membership of a mailing list

View the members of a mailing list

To see who would be contacted when you email a mailing list:

1. Search or browse the mailing list details page

2. View the members of staff on the list.

3. View the number of students on the list. Individual student names are not included on the list (see note below for details).

Please note: Membership of a mailing list can sometimes imply sensitive information, such as where somebody lives, or a sensitive job role.

To prevent this information from being made public, not all lists display their members. Students (including Postgraduate Taught Students – PGTs, and Postgraduate Research Students - PGRs) are never directly listed. 
 

Get the number of recipients on a mailing list

To discover how many people would be contacted when you email a mailing list, please:

1. Search or browse the mailing list details page

2. The number of members of the list appears at the top of the page, highlighted in a grey area.

Under this information, you will also find an estimation of how much time would be taken for people to process an email that you sent to the mailing list. This data is just an estimate of how much time might be wasted through unnecessary usage of the mailing lists and helps you understand the impact of every email sent to every mailing list.

 

Downloading the membership of a mailing list as CSV or another format

There is a very limited and specific group of people that can download the membership of a mailing list as a CSV file or other format. This is because downloading lists is not permitted by default due to security reasons.

If you need to download a list and do not currently have permission to do so, then please raise a ticket with ServiceLine including which list(s) you need to download the membership for. 

 

How to download the membership of a mailing list

1. Search or browse the mailing list details page 

2. On the mailing list details page click on the Download button

3. On the download page, select what fields you would like included in the file.

4. Select which file format you would like to download:

1. Microsoft Excel
2. CSV (comma-separated values)
3. TSV (tab-separated values)
4. HTML

5. Check the "Include headers?" box if you would like the file to include column headings in the downloaded file.

6. Click the "Download!" button.

7. Read and accept the warning that:

1. You are subject to any appropriate data protection legislation - for example the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)
2. The downloaded data should be used with caution and sensitivity.

8. The file will then be downloaded and can then be opened from the browser. 

  
Please note: Membership of a mailing list can sometimes imply sensitive information (for example where somebody lives, or a sensitive job role). Please be aware of this when sharing the list.

---

Back to the top

 

Get yourself added to a mailing list

Memberships are built from a variety of data sources. If you would like to be added to a distribution list you are not part, please raise a ticket.

Please note:

• iSolutions do not add people as a substitute for HR changes. If you change role, please ask HR to do the changes and then your all.soton memberships will be updated automatically
• Peoples floor and building lists are controlled by their subscribe setting.

Restricted list

Requests to add users to restricted lists must come from senior academic in the school or the admin office staff. This is because those lists might share confidential content with their recipients.

Examples of restricted lists are ERE lists, academic lists, and FMED staff lists.

Postgraduate Research Students (PGRs) and visitors

PGRs are added to all the research group lists for their supervisors.

PGRs and visitors can be added to staff lists. The process might take a little while because their profile will be checked before being added to the list(s). 

Undergraduate (UGs) and Postgraduate (PGTs) students

UG and PGT students do not get generally added to additional lists. If they need to send messages to a list, they can:

• ask a staff member to send out messages on their behalf
• get a role-based email address from the university or SUSU which can be passed on when the role changes person.

---

Back to the top

 

Get yourself removed from a mailing list 

Memberships are built from a variety of data sources. If you are receiving emails for a mailing list to which you think you should not belong:

1. Check the roles that are listed on your all.soton dashboard page. This indicates what all.soton understands your position at the university. 

If this information looks incorrect, then hover over the blue entry under the "Source" column which will explain where this data comes from and how to go about correcting it.

2. Check your user profile record on your dashboard. This shows which building you are associated with in all.soton - if this is wrong then click the 'Edit this info on Subscribe' button and update your contact details in Subscribe.

Please note, these changes in these systems may take up to 48 hours to filter through to All.Soton.

If your Roles and User Profiles details look correct but you are receiving emails that are not of interest, then set up an Outlook rule to filter out these messages.

If none of these suggestions is helpful, then please raise a ticket with ServiceLine. 

---

Back to the top

 

List Moderators

Mailing list moderators confirm that messages sent to a mailing list are appropriate before the members of the list receive a message.

View the moderators

To view the moderators of a list:

1. Search or browse the mailing list details page  

2. Select the mailing list name to display the details of the mailing list

3. The moderators of the mailing list are then displayed in a panel on the right-hand side of the page. 

If you wish to contact the moderators, select the "Mail the list moderators" button to send them an email. 

 

Add someone as a moderator

If you would like to add someone as a moderator of a mailing list, then please raise a ticket with ServiceLine including:

• the name of the mailing list(s)
• the username of the person to add.  

 

Remove someone as a moderator

If you would like to remove someone as a moderator (because their job has changed, for example), then please raise a ticket with ServiceLine including:

• the name of the mailing list(s)
• the username of the person to remove.  

---

Back to the top

 

Common issues 

A message sent to a mailing list has not been received

There are several rules that decide whether an individual may send to a particular mailing list. These include the following:

1. Moderation

Many mailing lists on All.Soton are moderated – this means that when a message is sent to a moderated list, it will first be sent to the moderator(s) who confirm the content is appropriate.

Only once this process has been completed is the message sent to the members of the mailing list. If you think your message should have been received, please first check with the list moderators.

2. Mailing lists beginning with "UOS"

Members of staff are permitted to send to most mailing lists except those beginning with “UOS.” To send to a university-wide UOS list, you will need to contact the university’s Internal Communications team.

3. Restricted lists for Taught students

Postgraduate Taught Students (PGTs) are only permitted to send to mailing lists that apply to their own degree programme of which they are a member of.

Students may not send calendar invites to mailing lists. To send to other lists please speak to a member of staff or your student office.

4. Email address not valid

Check the address you are sending from. If your message is still not being sent, then make sure you are sending the email from one of your valid university email accounts.

Valid university accounts appears when you have any additional addresses (for example, extra mail aliases). To see the list of valid university accounts visit your dashboard page and your valid accounts are listed in the right-hand column.  

If you are still unable to send emails after making these checks then please raise a ticket with ServiceLine. 

 

I am not receiving the messages from a mailing list I need for my job/study

Memberships are built from a variety of data sources. If you are not receiving emails from a mailing list to which you think you should belong, try the following:

1. Check the roles that are listed

Check the roles that are listed on your All.Soton dashboard page. This indicates what all.soton understands about your position at the university.

If this information looks incorrect then please contact your school office (for students) or contact Human Resources (for staff) and ask them to update your records.

2. Check your user profile record

Check your user profile record on your dashboard. This shows which building you are associated with in All.Soton - if this is wrong then click the 'Edit this info on Subscribe' button and update your contact details in Subscribe. 

Please note: these changes in these systems may take up to 48 hours to filter through to all.soton. If you continue to have a problem with your list membership then please raise a ticket with ServiceLine. 

When I try to log in to all.soton I receive an error message
Once you have confirmed that the credentials you are entering are correct, if you still have problems logging in then please raise a ticket with ServiceLine. 

---

Back to the top

 

Related content

Lists.soton

Lists.soton.ac.uk – User and Admin guides