Help:Unsubscribing

You can leave a UVLists list at any time. Leaving takes a minute or two, and you do not need an account or a password.

There are three ways to leave:

Send an email to the list's leave address. This is the simplest way.
Use the Unsubscribe button in your email program, if it shows one.
Use the list's website, if you have an account there.

Whichever way you choose, the list will ask you to confirm. This protects you from being removed by someone else.

If you only want fewer emails, or a break, you may not need to leave at all. See Alternatives to leaving.

Before you leave

Know which address is subscribed. You can only leave from the address you joined with. If you have more than one email address, or one address forwards to another, check which one the list messages are sent to. See Finding which address is subscribed.
Leaving one list does not affect others. If you are on several lists, leave each one separately.

Leave by email

Find the list's leave address. It is the posting address with -leave added before the @. For example:
norwich-discuss-leave@lists.uvlists.org

Each list's page in the list directory shows its leave address in the Join or leave section.
Send an email to the leave address from the address that is subscribed. The subject and message can be blank.
Within a few minutes you will receive a confirmation message from the list.
Confirm by replying to it without changing the subject, or by following the instructions in the message.
You will receive a short goodbye message when you have been removed.

Do not send "unsubscribe" to the list's posting address. That address goes to the list (or to its moderators), not to the system that handles leaving.

Use your email program's Unsubscribe button

Many email programs, including Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail, and Apple Mail, show an Unsubscribe link or button near the sender's name at the top of list messages.

Open any message from the list.
Select Unsubscribe near the top of the message.
Your email program sends a leave request for you.
Watch for the confirmation message from the list, and confirm as described above.

If you do not see an Unsubscribe button, use one of the other methods.

Leave through the website

If you have an account on the list website, you can leave there.

Open the list's page in the list directory and select the Web Interface link.
Select Sign In at the top of the page and sign in with your subscribed address.
On the list's page, select Unsubscribe.

If you do not have an account, it is easier to leave by email than to create one.

To see every list you belong to, sign in and choose Subscriptions from the menu under your name.

Please do not mark list messages as spam

It can be tempting to press Spam or Junk to make list messages go away. Please do not.

It does not unsubscribe you. Messages keep coming, they just go to your spam folder.
It can hurt delivery for your neighbors. Email services notice when people mark messages from a list as spam, and may start sending that list's messages to spam for everyone.

Use one of the methods above instead. If something is not working, email helpdesk@uvlists.org and we will remove you.

Alternatives to leaving

If the list is useful but the volume is not, try one of these. Sign in to the list website, open the list, and select Manage Subscription to change them. See Changing your settings for step-by-step help.

Get fewer emails

Change Delivery mode from Regular to a digest. Instead of one email per message, you get messages bundled together. Summary Digests list only the subjects, so you can skim and read just what interests you in the archive.

Take a break

Going on vacation, or just need a pause? Change Delivery status to Disabled. You stay subscribed but receive nothing. When you are ready, change it back to Enabled.

Read on the web instead

Most lists have a public archive on the web. You can turn off delivery as described above and read the archive when you like. The archive link is on each list's page.

Changing to a new email address

There is no need to leave and rejoin.

Subscribe your new address.
Once messages are arriving at the new address, leave the list from the old address.

If you no longer have access to the old address, email helpdesk@uvlists.org and we will remove it for you.

Lists that moved from Vital Communities

If you were on a Vital Communities town list, your subscription moved to UVLists automatically at your list's cutover. To leave now, use the new UVLists leave address (for example, norwich-discuss-leave@lists.uvlists.org). The old Vital Communities unsubscribe addresses no longer apply to the new list.

See the migration page for each list's dates and Renaming Lists for how addresses changed.

Common problems

I unsubscribed but I still get messages

You may not have confirmed. Leaving is not finished until you confirm. Check your inbox and spam folder for the confirmation message.
A message may already have been on its way. One or two messages, or a final digest, can arrive shortly after you leave.
You may be subscribed with another address. See the next section.
You may be on more than one list. Check the tag at the start of the subject, such as [Norwich-discuss], to see which list a message came from.

Finding which address is subscribed

If you have several email addresses, or one forwards to another, it can be hard to tell which one is on the list. Try this:

Look at the To line of a list message. It usually shows the list's address, not yours, so look further: in many email programs, you can view the message's details (sometimes called Show original, View source, or Message details) and look for your own address near the top.
Try leaving from each address you own. A request from an address that is not subscribed does no harm; you will simply be told the address is not a member.
Or email helpdesk@uvlists.org, and forward one of the list messages you received. We can tell you which address it was sent to.

The confirmation message never arrived

Check your spam or junk folder, and make sure you sent the leave request from the subscribed address. If it still does not arrive, send the request again or email helpdesk@uvlists.org.

I do not remember subscribing

You may have been moved over from a Vital Communities list, or someone else may have subscribed your address. Either way, you can leave using any method on this page.

Still need help?

If you cannot leave a list, email helpdesk@uvlists.org. Please include:

The name of the list, such as Norwich-Discuss.
The email address you want removed.
If you are not sure which address it is, forward one of the list messages you received.

We will remove you and let you know when it is done.

Need help?

For problems receiving messages, see email delivery help.

For other assistance, see contact UVLists.