# Mailing lists service Sympa

**Source**: https://sympa.cms.hu-berlin.de/sympa/help/user.html
**Parent**: https://sympa.cms.hu-berlin.de/sympa/help/

## Mailing lists - User Guide

### How the mailing list service works

The mailing-list service is managed by a **mailing-list software: Sympa**. This software comes with a **web mailing list environment**.

**To perform actions related to mailing lists** (subscribe, change your options, etc.), you have two options:

- **log on to the web environment**;
- **send commands by email** to the Sympa mailing list manager at **sympa@lists.hu-berlin.de**.

**To send a command to Sympa**, do as follows:

- **If you send a single command**, type it into the subject line of your email and leave its body blank.
- **If you send several commands**, leave the subject line of your email blank and type all the commands in the email body. **Be careful**: Sympa will not process your message unless you respect the following rules:
  - Write every command on a new line.
  - Send your message in plain text, not in HTML (no formatting).
  - Your message can not contain anything else than Sympa commands (no signature block).

A description of all the commands you can send to Sympa is available at [mail\_commands](https://sympa.cms.hu-berlin.de/sympa/help/commands.html).

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- [Subscribing to mailing lists](https://sympa.cms.hu-berlin.de/sympa/help/user-subscribe.html)
- [Logging on to the mailing list environment](https://sympa.cms.hu-berlin.de/sympa/help/user-authweb.html)
- [Checking your subscriptions](https://sympa.cms.hu-berlin.de/sympa/help/user-listmenu.html)
- [Review members](https://sympa.cms.hu-berlin.de/sympa/help/user-review.html)
- Managing your preferences
  - [Changing your subscriber options](https://sympa.cms.hu-berlin.de/sympa/help/user-suboptions.html)
  - [Changing your general preferences](https://sympa.cms.hu-berlin.de/sympa/help/user-pref.html)
- [Searching for a mailing list](https://sympa.cms.hu-berlin.de/sympa/help/user-searchlist.html)
- [Reading the list archive online](https://sympa.cms.hu-berlin.de/sympa/help/arc.html)
- [Sending a message](https://sympa.cms.hu-berlin.de/sympa/help/user-sendmsg.html)
- [Using the shared document web space](https://sympa.cms.hu-berlin.de/sympa/help/shared.html)
- [Manage your subscriptions](https://sympa.cms.hu-berlin.de/sympa/help/user-suspend.html)
- [Unsubscribing from lists](https://sympa.cms.hu-berlin.de/sympa/help/user-signoff.html)