Mailing lists

Mailing lists let the site send news by email to people who signed up for it. Editors write and test campaigns and weekly digests (see Mailing lists in the Editor guide). Admins also:

• set the feature up under Settings, Mailing Lists, and connect Mailgun;
• make the lists;
• add, import, unsubscribe, erase and export subscribers;
• send, schedule, pause, cancel and approve campaigns;
• turn weekly digests on;
• resume sending when it has been paused for the whole site.

Everything except the settings is on the Mailing Lists screen: People in the top bar, then Mailing Lists.

Setting it up

1. Click the gear ⚙ for Settings, then Mailing Lists (under Features).
2. Tick Mailing on. The rest of the settings appear.
3. Fill in the sender and the postal address (below), and anything else you need.
4. Click Save settings. Mailing Lists then appears under People in the top bar.
5. Connect Mailgun (see Connecting Mailgun).
6. On the Mailing Lists screen, make at least one list (see Lists).

Turning mailing lists off hides the screen, its blocks and its pages, but deletes nothing.

Every setting

At the top, the section says whether Mailgun is set up: Sending through Mailgun from your sending domain, or that Mailgun isn’t set up, so nothing goes out, with a link to Settings > Connections. It also shows the site’s Mailgun webhook address, which the connection sets up for you.

Sender

Setting	What it does
From name (empty: the site’s name)	The name emails come from. Each campaign or digest can use its own.
From address, before the @	The first part of the sender’s address; the rest is your Mailgun sending domain. Empty, it is “news”.
Replies go to (optional)	Where replies to campaigns go, such as your office address. Each campaign or digest can use its own.
Postal address (required: every email shows it)	Your organisation’s postal address, shown in every email’s footer. The law in many countries requires it, and nothing can be sent until it is filled in.

Signing up

Setting	What it does
Consent wording under sign-up forms	What people agree to when they sign up. Empty, it is “I agree to receive email from us. I can unsubscribe at any time.” Each Subscribe block can have its own. The wording each person agreed to is kept with their record.
Lists offered to members	Only on sites with members. Lists offered (unticked) when someone creates a member account, and on a member’s account page, where they choose their lists.

The section also links to the site’s ready-made pages, /subscribe/, /unsubscribe/ and /email-preferences/.

Subscriber fields

Fields every subscriber can have besides first and last name, such as “Town” or “Business type”. They are set on each subscriber, filled in from an import’s columns of the same name, asked for by Subscribe blocks, used in segments, and put in emails as merge tags.

1. Click Add a field.
2. Type its name, such as “Town”, and choose its type: Text, Number, Date or Choice. For a choice, type the options separated by commas.
3. Under it, the field’s merge tag shows, such as {town}. The tag is made from the name and doesn’t change once saved, so emails using it keep working if you rename the field.
4. Click Save settings.

A name must start with a letter, can’t repeat another field’s, and can’t be one of the built-in tags (such as email or first_name): the field says so. Remove takes a field away; subscribers keep their values, which then show as other fields on each subscriber’s page. A site can have up to 30 fields.

New campaigns

• Track links (each link goes through the site, which tells people’s clicks from mail scanners’): ticked on new campaigns and digests unless you untick it here.
• Add UTM parameters to links to this site: ticked on new campaigns when this is ticked. (New digests start with it ticked.)

Each campaign can change both.

Pause sending when

• Spam complaints pass (% of delivered; default 0.1)
• Bounces pass (% of sent; default 2)

These are checked once a campaign has 500 deliveries (and at least 2 complaints or 10 bounces). Past either, everything stops, digests included, and the site’s admin address is emailed, until an admin resumes sending (see When sending is paused). Mail services judge senders by these numbers, so a campaign that annoys people can harm every later one.

Connecting Mailgun

Campaigns and digests go out through Mailgun, an email sending service, from a sending domain of your own (often a subdomain, such as news.example.org). The site’s other emails (form notifications, tickets, password links, sign-up confirmations) don’t use Mailgun.

Connect it under Settings, Connections: paste the Mailgun key, type your password and click Connect (see Connections). The site finds the region, asks which sending domain to use if you have several, and sets up Mailgun’s webhooks, which tell the site about deliveries, opens, bounces, spam complaints and unsubscribes.

Until Mailgun is connected, nothing is sent, and the Mailing Lists screen, its settings and each campaign say so.

Lists

The Lists tab shows each list with View its number of subscribers. Anyone can be on a list, members or not, and on several lists.

To make a list:

1. Type its Name, such as “Newsletter”, and a Description if you like, such as “News and events, once a month”. Visitors see both when choosing lists.
2. Leave Public ticked for a list people can sign up to themselves, or untick it (see below).
3. Click Add list.

To change a list, edit its name, description, order or Public in its row and click Save in that row. The number box is its order: lists are shown with the lowest number first, in sign-up forms, on the preferences page and everywhere else. A new list goes last.

Public or not:

• Public lists are offered by Subscribe and Newsletter signup blocks, and on the email preferences page, where people choose their lists.
• Other lists are only for people you add or import (and, on sites with members, members when the list is offered to them). They don’t show on the preferences page; Unsubscribe from all still takes people off them.

Remove deletes a list (it asks first): its subscribers leave it, and their other lists stay.

Subscribers

The Subscribers tab lists everyone, newest first, 100 to a page. Search names and email addresses, or choose a status, list or tag and click Filter. The boxes at the top add people.

Caution

Add only people who agreed to get these emails. Each way of adding people asks how they agreed, and keeps your answer as their consent.

Adding someone

1. Open Add a contact.
2. Fill in Email, and First name and Last name if you have them.
3. Choose the List.
4. Add Tags (optional, comma separated).
5. Under How they agreed (kept as their consent), say how, for example “Asked at the front desk, 12 Oct”.
6. Click Add.

They are subscribed at once, without a confirmation email, because you vouch for their consent. Someone already on file is put on the list and gets the tags. Someone who unsubscribed (from everything or from that list), bounced, marked an email as spam or was erased is not added: the message says they need to sign up themselves.

Importing a CSV file

A CSV file is a spreadsheet saved as plain text; any spreadsheet program can save one.

1. Open Import a CSV.
2. Choose the File (up to 5 MB).
3. Choose Onto the list.
4. Under How these people agreed, say how, for example “Signed up on the old site’s newsletter form”.
5. If you like, fill in Tag everyone imported (optional).
6. Click Import.

The message says how many were added, how many were already known, how many were skipped and how many were not email addresses.

The file needs a first row naming its columns. The site reads:

Column	What it does
email (or e-mail, email address)	The address. Required.
first name and last name (or first_name, firstname, last_name, lastname, surname)	The name.
name (or full name)	A whole name, split at the first space, when there are no first and last name columns.
tags (or tag)	Tags for that person, separated by ; or |.
A subscriber field’s name or tag, such as Town or town	Fills that field. A value that doesn’t fit the field (not a number, not a date, not one of a choice’s options) is left out.
Any other column	Becomes a field of its own on each person, to use in segments.

A file without an email column is read as addresses in the first column and names in the second. Commas, semicolons and tabs between columns all work. Columns from the site’s own export (status, lists, consent_source and the dates) are ignored, so an exported file imports back.

Everyone imported is subscribed at once, without a confirmation email. People already on file are put on the list, gain the file’s tags and fields, and get a name if they had none. Anyone who unsubscribed (from everything or from that list), bounced, marked an email as spam or was erased is skipped: only they can sign up again.

Adding members to a list

Only on sites with members. Add members to a list puts active members on a list:

1. Tick the levels under Active members of (none ticked: any level).
2. Choose Onto the list.
3. Under How they agreed, say how, for example “Membership terms include member news”.
4. Click Add members.

As with an import, members who unsubscribed, bounced or were erased are skipped. Members can also choose their lists on their account page.

A subscriber’s page

Click an address on the Subscribers tab. You can change their First name, Last name, subscriber fields, Lists, Tags (comma separated), Other fields and Notes, then click Save.

• Ticking a list adds them to it, but only while they are Subscribed: someone waiting for confirmation or unsubscribed has to sign up (or confirm) themselves. Unticking a list takes them off it.
• Under Other fields, fill in the empty row (a field and a value) to add a field; clear a value to remove one.

The Consent box shows how they agreed: the Source, when they Agreed, when they Confirmed, the Wording they agreed to, the From address (the internet address they signed up from), and when they were Added. Under it are the actions below. Further down, Sent to them and Clicks show each campaign and click (see the Editor guide).

Resending a confirmation

Someone Waiting for confirmation may not have received the email, or lost it. Click Resend confirmation beside their status on the Subscribers tab, or in the Consent box on their page. It says Confirmation email sent again.

One address gets at most three confirmation emails a day (only one if it was erased before), counting the ones their own sign-ups sent. Nothing is sent to an address that bounced or marked an email as spam, and the message says why.

Unsubscribing someone

On their page, click Unsubscribe and confirm. They are taken off every list at once and get no more email. They can come back by signing up again or through the preferences link in an email they already have.

Erasing someone

When someone asks for their details to be deleted, click Erase on their page and confirm. Their record, what was sent to them and their clicks are deleted, and Mailgun’s records of their address too. Only a one-way scrambled copy of the address (a hash) is kept, which can’t be turned back into the address, so the site knows never to email it again unless they sign up themselves. Imports and Add a contact skip an erased address. Their address is also added to Mailgun’s unsubscribe list.

Exporting

Export all as CSV downloads every subscriber: their address, name, status, lists, tags, fields, and their consent and dates. It imports back as it is.

Sending a campaign

Editors write campaigns and send tests; sending is yours. Before you send:

• Open the campaign and check its Subject, To the lists, Segment and, on sites with members, Members.
• Use Send a test to send it to yourself (and up to 5 others), and read it in your inbox.

In the Send box of the campaign:

• Send now sends it straight away.
• Or pick a date and time beside or at and click Schedule. Times are in the site’s time zone, shown under the box.

Either way a box asks Send this campaign now? (or Schedule this campaign?), saying who it goes to and counting how many people that is now. Tick I’ve sent a test and checked it. This can’t be called back once it goes. and click Send (or Schedule). Not yet goes back. Unsaved changes are saved first.

The count is who would get it at this moment. Whoever is still subscribed when it actually goes out is who gets it, so people who unsubscribe meanwhile are left out.

It won’t send, and says why, when:

• it has no subject (Give it a subject.);
• no list is ticked (Choose at least one list.);
• the postal address is missing under Settings, Mailing Lists;
• nobody matches (the Send button stays greyed out with 0 people);
• the site’s address isn’t set on the server: the message asks for SITE_URL, which whoever runs the site sets, because the links in every email are made from it.

A scheduled campaign

A Scheduled campaign shows the time it goes out. Admins can still change it and Save. In the Send box:

• Back to draft stops it going out and makes it a draft again (for a weekly digest’s issue that no admin approved, the button is Unschedule, which puts it back to waiting for approval).
• Send now instead sends it straight away.
• Cancel the campaign stops it for good (it asks first).

While it sends

When a campaign starts, the site fixes its email and its list of recipients, then sends to them in batches of up to 1,000. Each batch first leaves out anyone who unsubscribed in the meantime. A large campaign takes several minutes. Its page refreshes every 15 seconds, and Sent shows how many are still to go.

Pause stops it before the next batch. Emails already sent stay sent.

Paused, failed and cancelled

Status	What to do
Paused	The reason shows beside the status. Resume now carries on with the people not sent to yet (a box, Resume this campaign now?, asks again with the count); you can also pick a time and Schedule it. Cancel the campaign stops it for good.
Failed	The reason shows beside the status, such as Mailgun refusing the email or nobody on the lists being subscribed. Fix what it names, then click Resume now: the batches that failed are sent again, to those still subscribed then.
Cancelled	Nothing more goes. A cancelled campaign that sent nothing can be deleted.

Sometimes the site can’t tell whether Mailgun accepted a batch, for example when the connection dropped mid-way. It checks with Mailgun before sending that batch again, so nobody gets the email twice. If it still can’t tell, it pauses the campaign with a message such as “Batch 3: whether Mailgun took it is unclear, so it wasn’t sent again. Check Mailgun’s logs before resuming.” Look in Mailgun’s logs for the emails before you click Resume now.

After it is sent

The campaign shows its numbers, each link’s clicks and every recipient (see After a campaign is sent in the Editor guide). Admins also have Compare with Mailgun’s totals, which shows Mailgun’s own counts for the campaign beside the site’s.

Delete removes drafts, and campaigns that were cancelled, skipped or failed before they started sending. A campaign that started sending stays, with its numbers.

The weekly digest

Editors make and design digests while they are off; admins turn them on. Open the digest from the Weekly digests tab.

1. Check its Subject, Goes out on and At (the weekday and time, in the site’s time zone; a new digest says Thursday at 09:00), its lists, Segment and Members.
2. Under Each issue, choose:
   • Waits for an admin’s approval: each week’s issue is made at its time and waits. Set Hours it waits (made at its time, sent this much later if approved) (24 to start with, 1 to 168).
   • Goes out on its own: each issue is sent as soon as it is made.
3. Skip a week with fewer than … entries and events: leave it ticked so a quiet week sends nothing. With 1, only a week with nothing at all is skipped.
4. Tick On: make an issue every week.
5. Click Save.

It won’t turn on without at least one list (“Choose at least one list before turning it on.”) or the postal address.

Each week

Within a few minutes of its time, the site makes that week’s issue as a campaign named after the digest and the week, such as “Weekly digest: week of October 12, 2026”, and lists it under Issues and on the Campaigns tab. Its Entries blocks that list only new entries show what was published since the last issue went out.

• Goes out on its own: it is sent at once.
• Waits for an admin’s approval: it shows Waiting for approval, and the site’s admin address gets an email “… is ready for review” with a Review it link. Open it, check the email (you can change it and Save), then click Approve and confirm: it goes out at the time shown, its time plus the hours it waits. You can also Send now instead. If nobody approves it in time, it is cancelled (“Not approved before its time.”) and the admin address is told it wasn’t sent.
• A week with too little in it is Skipped (nothing new), with how many items it had and how many it needed. A week when nobody on its lists is subscribed is skipped too.

An issue is made once a week. If you turn a digest on more than a day after this week’s time, the first issue comes next week.

Its buttons

• Send me this week’s issue: this week’s issue as it would be now, to you, as a test.
• Make an issue now: makes an issue straight away, outside the schedule (save first). With approval, it waits like any other; otherwise it is sent at once. It asks first.
• Delete digest: deletes the digest. Its issues stay as campaigns.

While a digest is on, only admins can change it.

When sending is paused

If a campaign passes the spam complaint or bounce rate set under Settings, Mailing Lists, the site pauses all sending: campaigns that were sending stop with Paused, scheduled ones and digests wait, and the site’s admin address gets an email “Mailing paused”. The Mailing Lists screen says Sending is paused: with the campaign and the rate.

1. Find out why. Open the campaign named: was it sent to people who hadn’t agreed, such as an old imported list? Look at its bounces and complaints under Recipients.
2. Fix the cause, for example by unsubscribing or erasing the people who shouldn’t be on the list.
3. On the Mailing Lists screen, click Resume sending and confirm.

Campaigns that were paused stay paused until you open each one and click Resume now.

Each night the site also checks Mailgun’s own lists of bounced addresses, spam complaints and unsubscribes, and stops sending to anyone on them. Someone who bounced or marked an email as spam is never emailed again unless they sign up and confirm themselves.

Segments

Editors and admins make segments (see Segments in the Editor guide). While a campaign that is scheduled, waiting for approval, sending or paused, or a digest that is on, uses a segment, only admins can change its rules, so an approved email never goes to more people than intended. Check Who matches now before you change the rules of a segment in use.

What isn’t synced or backed up

Subscribers, lists, segments, campaigns with their numbers, digests and email templates stay on the copy of the site where they were made: Settings > Sync doesn’t copy them, and backups don’t hold them, so restoring a backup never subscribes anyone again. Settings > Mailing Lists is synced and backed up with the other settings. Whether sending is paused belongs to each copy.

Mailing list emails aren’t kept in the email log either: each campaign’s page shows who it went to.