Technology

Approve Email Sent to a Moderated Listserv

All listserv lists at Illinois State University are required to be moderated, effective September 3rd, 2025. This means that one or more persons will need to review and approve any email sent to their listserv before the message will be forwarded to the listserv subscriber list. Only messages sent to the listserv by the listserv Editor will not require approval; all others will.


  • What a Sender Sees

When someone sends an email to a listserv address, they will receive an automated response stating that their message has been sent to the listserv moderator for approval (Figure 1):

Figure 1:

Automated Response email

  • What the Moderator(s) See

When a message has been sent to a listserv address, the moderator(s) will receive an email alert informing them that there is an email awaiting their review and/approval (Figure 1):

Email that the moderator will receive


Approving an Email to a Listserv

Listserv moderators may approve an email sent to their listserv by either clicking the link in the approval notification (as shown in the above section) or by replying to the approval email. Instructions for both methods are below:

  • Approve an Email Via the Link

To approve an email to a listserv via the link provided in the approval email:

  1. Click on the link (Figure 1):

    Figure 1:
    Screenshot showing the approve link near the bottom of the automated email
  2. If prompted, log in to the Listserv portal with your ISU email address and password.
  3. In the Listserv portal, you will see any message(s) awaiting approval. Click on the message to review it (Figure 2):

    Figure2:
    ListServ Portal with the message highlighted showing an arrow to it.
  4. Once you have reviewed the message, you may select to either Approve, or to Reject the message (Figure 3). Clicking Approve will allow the message to be forwarded to all listserv subscribers. Clicking Reject will prevent delivery to the listserv subscribers.

    Figure 3:
    ListServ Moderation menu showing an arrow to Approve or Reject the message
  5. If approved you will see a messages stating that, and you will no longer see the message in the portal (Figure 4):

    Figure 4:
    Message successfully approved shown in the List Moderation Menu

  • Approve an Email by Replying to the Email

 Moderators may alternately choose to approve an email to their listserv by replying "OK to the approval email. See screenshots below:

  1. To review the message, click to open the attachment (Figure 1). After reviewing the message, close the message window and return to the original approval notification.

    Figure 1:
    Drop-down menu on attachment shown
  2. Reply "OK" to the approval email (Figure 2):

    Figure 2:
    User replying
  3. Moderator receives confirmation message of the approval (Figure 3):

    Figure 3:
    Email that will be received by Moderator showing successful message approval
  4. The message is sent to the listserv subscribers (Figure 4):

    Figure 4:
    Test email sent to Listserv subscribers

 If you do not wish to approve a message sent to your listserv, you may also simply ignore it. The message will eventually expire if not approved.

Additional Information:

How to Get Help

Technical assistance is available through the Illinois State University Technology Support Center at: