Discussion List

As part of AALL's 2011 website design, more tools for communicating and networking with all of AALL colleagues became available. To maximize these new features, AALL migrated from its previous discussion list platform to the new, enhanced eGroups on the My Communities platform on August 1, 2011.

Effective August 1, TS-SIS members started to receive all of discussion list messages via the new eGroups. SISs are synced with the AALL membership database and will automatically be added to the TS-SIS community.

3 Geeks and a Law Blog posted on July 11, 2011 about how to get started with My Communities.

To access eGroups, first sign in to AALLNET. Then go to My Communities and look at the "Getting Started" box on the homepage for information about accessing all of the new functions available.

Note that you can have different settings for each eGroup of which you are a member, allowing you to customize how you receive information from each.

You may wish to white list the following addresses:

  • noreply@egroups.aallnet.org
  • noreply@notifications.aallnet.org

Old messages will remain archived, but the ability to send messages will cease.

REPLYING TO EGROUP MESSAGES FROM YOUR EMAIL

If you would like to reply to an AALLNET My Communities post or create a new message without logging into My Communities, the "legacy" subscription setting allows you to do so. The "legacy" subscription setting is optional, so before you opt to use it, please read the following important information:

  • Messages are delivered in real time and in plain text (HTML formatting is stripped out).
  • Replying to a message directly from your email client will send the message to the entire community. To reply to just the sender, manually change the email address in the "To:" line in your email client or click on the "reply to sender" link located at the bottom of the message to log into My Communities and reply.
  • Similar to the old discussion lists, email aliases cannot be used. The email address from which the message is sent must match your subscription email address. You may update the email address used for your eGroups through your subscriptions page (login required).
  • If you need to include an attachment with your message, then you must log into My Communities. Otherwise, messages with attachments will be rejected.
  • Differences between how email providers structure their email systems may show up, and content formatting issues (e.g., strange characters) may come through.
  • Messages from your email client may take a few minutes longer to post because they have to go through more authentication (i.e., firewalls, email address authentication).

If you wish to use the legacy subscription setting for your eGroups, please visit your subscriptions page (login required) to update your settings.

See the My Communities Help Center for assistance using AALL's use My Communities.

To begin using My Communities:

  • Go to http://community.aallnet.org. If you are coming from AALLNET, click on "My Communities" located under the "Member Communities" menu.
  • Adjust your subscription settings by clicking on "My Subscriptions" under the "Discussions" button on the main navigation.
  • Review your eGroups and modify your settings.
  • Note that you may receive notifications in real time; as a daily digest; PDA (real time, but in plain text format for mobile devices); opt to not receive any emails; or unsubscribe altogether.
  • Click on "View All Communities" under the "Directory" button on the main navigation to view all of the communities and join any open communities.