Create or Remove a Predefined Subject Line Tag for a LISTSERV List

You can assign a text string to automatically appear in the subject line of all email messages posted to a LISTSERV mailing list. This text string cannot contain any blanks or punctuation other than hyphens and underscores. The tag appears at the beginning of the subject line in square brackets. Some list owners use the name of the list as the subject tag.

Note: These instructions are intended for LISTSERV list owners.

Create a subject line tag for a LISTSERV list:

1. Log into LISTSERV.

   • If you have an @mail.wvu.edu account, go to listserv.wvu.edu. 

   • If you have an @hsc.wvu.edu account, go to lists.hsc.wvu.edu.

2. Select the list you wish to edit (if you own more than one list).

3. Click List Management.

4. Choose List Configuration from the drop-down list.

5. Choose Manual List Configuration from the set of list configuration choices. Add a line: Subject-Tag= 'your_text' to the list configuration, where 'your_text' is the tag line you wish to add to all of your email subjects. 

   Note: The text cannot contain any spaces; use hyphens or underscores instead.

6. Click Save.

7. You will see a confirmation message about the list header being successfully replaced. 

To make this change take effect for all list subscribers: 

1. Click List Management.

2. Choose LISTSERV Command.

3. Type this command line in the New Command box: QUIET SET listname SUBJECTHDR for *@* where listname is the name of your list that you are editing. QUIET means that the subscribers will not get a message about a change to their settings.

4. Click Enter Command.

5. You will see a confirmation line referring to subscription options being updated for each subscriber.

Remove a subject line tag from a LISTSERV list:

1. Edit the list configuration: Click on the List Management menu and choose List Configuration > Manual List Configuration as in the first section above.

2. Delete the Subject-Tag= line from the list configuration file.

3. Click on the Save button. You will see a confirmation that the list header has been replaced.

4. Click on the List Management menu and select LISTSERV Command from the list.

5. Issue a LISTSERV command as described in the second section above, with the message:

6. QUIET SET listname NOSUBJ for *@*

7. Click on the Enter Command button.

8. You will see a confirmation line referring to subscription options being updated for each subscriber.