Workgroups, Mailing Lists, and Email Forwarders

Causeway uses three basic group types: Workgroups, Mailing Lists, and Email Forwarders. You should choose the correct type of group, based on how you intend to use the group.

Workgroups

Workgroups are the most powerful of the three types. Workgroups can contain any kind of content, like Documents, Calendar events, Wiki pages, and Tasks. Any member of the Workgroup can view the content inside. Depending on the member's permissions, he or she may also be able to edit content.

Workgroups also have built-in mailing lists that function identically to the standalone mailing lists described below. The archives for these lists are available under the "Discussions" tab within the Workgroup. This mailing list may be turned off if for Workgroups that do not require email functionality.

Workgroups have a second built-in email forwarder, the "Workgroup Chair Address" which forwards all mail on to the chair(s) of the Workgroup. This address does not keep email archives, and messages sent to the chair are never held for moderation.

Mailing Lists

Causeway allows you to create standalone Mailing Lists. Mailing Lists are for email only. They do not hold other content like Documents, Calendar events, Wiki pages, or Tasks. Users may view a page within Causeway where they can subscribe to these mailing lists.

Mailing Lists keep archives of email sent to the list, just like the Workgroup Discussions module. However, only administrators may view the archives.

Messages to a Mailing List may be held for moderator approval, depending on the Mailing List Moderation settings.

Mailing Lists can be Private (available to Causeway users only) or Public (available for the general public to subscribe).

Private Mailing Lists

Private Mailing Lists allow only Causeway users to subscribe. When a user's Company is made Inactive, the user's subscription to a Private Mailing List is automatically suspended.

Public Mailing Lists

Public Mailing Lists allow anyone to subscribe. No Causeway account is required.

Initially, public mailing lists are only visible inside Causeway. People who have Causeway user accounts can subscribe on their own. People who do not have Causeway user accounts must be added by an administrator.

If your organization has a public-facing website, it is possible to add a subscription form to your website, allowing the general public to see and sign up for your public mailing lists. Creating this signup form requires some custom development. If you are interested in implementing this feature on your organization's website, please contact the Causeway team to get a quote.

Unlike private Mailing Lists, subscriptions are not tied to the status of the user's company. If the subscriber is a Causeway user and his/her Company is set to Inactive, he or she will continue to receive email from public mailing lists.

Email Forwarders

Email Forwarders (sometimes known as "reflectors" or "aliases") are an email address that forwards to a simple list of recipients. When a message comes in to a forwarder, it is forwarded on to each email address in the list. Messages to Email Forwarders are never held for moderation, and the Email Forwarders do not keep archives of the messages. Email Forwarder recipients do not need to be Causeway users.

For example:

• Joe is the president of your organzation, and wants an email address joe@yourorganization.org
• Joe wants the email sent to joe@yourorganization.org to forward to his work email address, joe@joescompany.org.
• A Causeway administrator would create a forwarder called "joe" that forwards to joe@joescompany.org
• If Joe wants to send email as joe@yourorganization.org, he must set up a special account ("alias") within his email software to allow this. Causeway does not provide support for email client software or alias setup. For help with alias setup, Joe will need to contact his IT department.

Email Forwarders may only be created or edited by Causeway Site Administrators. Recipients do not have the ability to add or remove their addresses from the forwarders.

About Email Addresses

Every Workgroup, Mailing List, and Email Forwarder has its own email address. The email addresses must be unique within the system. It is not possible to create a Workgroup and a Mailing List, or a Workgroup and an Email Forwarder, that have the same email address. Additionally, a Mailing List or Email Forwarder may not use the same email address as the Workgroup Chair email address.

All email addresses in Causeway must be a Workgroup, Mailing List, or Email Forwarder. Causeway does not provide mailboxes for individual users. If someone requires an individual email address, an administrator must create an Email Forwarder which forwards mail to an external mailbox.