Non–Working Group email list guidelines

These guidelines provide assistance for using, requesting, and updating email lists that are not Working Group email lists.

Any email sent to IETF lists is considered an IETF "Contribution" as defined in RFC 5378, Section 1 (see also the NOTE WELL statement).

To request a non–Working Group list, or to update or delete an existing list, please send an email to an appropriate Area Director for approval, and ask him/her to forward the approved request to support@ietf.org. When adding a list, please provide the following information:

  • The name and email address of the submitter
  • The name of the list
  • The URL or email address of the list
  • The name(s) and email address(es) of the list administrator(s)
  • A summary description of the list to be included in the table on this page
  • A more detailed explanation of the purpose of the list to be included on the mailman page and sent in the announcement of the list that is sent to the community
  • The IETF Area to which the list belongs
  • The URL or other instructions for subscribing to the list 

Note: Mailman does not support the renaming of mail lists, so please choose the list name very carefully. In order to rename a Mailman list, the Secretariat must create a new list and migrate the subscribers and archives over. This process can result in data loss as Mailman occasionally encounters issues with the re-import of the archives.

The renaming of mail lists is also prohibited because it breaks the URLs of the list archives.

The following types of lists SHOULD be added to the list of non–Working Group email lists:

  • Directorates (see also the list of directorates) 
  • Review lists specified in IANA procedures 
  • Lists of former WGs that wish to remain active 
  • Lists that are created with the intent to form a working group (with AD approval) 
  • Lists that are created for a subtask of a working group

The following types of lists SHOULD NOT be added:

These guidelines are intended to make the list useful and easy to maintain. This list is maintained by the IETF Secretariat. The guidelines are set by the IESG.