Administrator Documentation

EMail Parrot™ Administrator Documentation

This guide provides complete documentation for administering EMail Parrot™ email lists. Whether you’re setting up your first list or managing multiple groups, this documentation covers all administrative functions.

Table of Contents

  1. Administrator Login
  2. Administrator Page Overview
  3. List Creation and Deletion
  4. List Membership Management
  5. Member Management
  6. Group Settings
  7. Quarantined Emails
  8. Send Admin Email
  9. Custom Domains
  10. Support

Administrator Login

The “Sign In” page allows existing admins to log in and enables creation of new admin accounts. If you don’t already have an EMail Parrot™ admin account, create one by selecting the “Create Account” link.

You can access the administrative web page at: https://emparrot.com/admin/index.html

Your password will be securely saved and will be the only verification needed for future access to the admin pages.

Important Note: Marking a member as an admin within a distribution list does not grant them access to the administrator web page. Members marked as administrators in the distribution list will be part of the admin.<list>@emparrot.com sublist. For a member to have access to the web administrator page to manage list membership, they need to create a login using the same email address they use in the email list.

Administrator Page Overview

As an administrator, you have access to all information for all email distribution lists where you are marked as an “admin.” To select which email list you want to manage select from the list of known lists you manage or select “other” and enter its name in the box at the top of the page. Email list names are the full email address to the list - “mylist@emparrot.com”

The administrator page has three main tabs:

  1. List Membership - View all members
  2. Group Settings - Configure list properties
  3. List Quarantined Emails - View / bulk delete quarantined messages Under each there is an additional tab that can be activated for more actions:
  4. Under List Membership - Add/Update/Delete Member - Manage individual members
  5. Under Group Settings - Admin Email - Send emails as list admin
  6. Under List Quarantined Emails - Manage Quarantined Emails - Review, reprocess or delete a quarantined message

List Creation and Deletion

In the upper right of the page is the “Account” pull-down menu. This menu allows you to create new lists, delete existing lists, update payment information, or log out.

Creating a New Email List

  1. Press “Create Email List” button
  2. Provide required list details:
    • List name: The email list name and domain (e.g., team and emparrot.com)
    • List common name: Display name recipients see (e.g., “Project Team”)
    • Your name: Your pseudonym when sending to this list
    • Organization (optional): Company or organization name
    • Website (optional): Organization website
  3. Review and agree to Terms of Service
  4. Provide payment information (or skip for trial period on your first email list)
  5. Click “Create”

Important Notes:

  • Credit card information is securely stored at stripe.com a fully acredited payment processor
  • EMail Parrot does not store credit card information, only a secure and encrypted stripe token
  • Only one token is stored per web login - all payments for your lists will be processed on the last payment method entered
  • The creator of an email list is designated as the “owner” for payment processing
  • The creator’s email address is automatically added as a member and marked as admin for the list

Deleting an Email List

  1. Press “Delete Email List” button
  2. The email list selected will be deleted
  3. Check that the correct email list will be deleted
  4. Confirm the deletion

Important Notes:

  • Only the list owner can delete an email list
  • The owner must also be marked as a list admin to delete the list
  • This action cannot be undone so double check that the correct list is selected
  • All member information will be permanently removed

Other Admin Actions

All email list administration tasks (besides deletion) can be performed by any list admin, not just the owner.

List Membership

Access this tab by selecting a list name, selecting other then entering a list address in the “other” box and press enter, or by clicking the “List Membership” tab.

This tab displays all members of the selected list. As admin, you have access to members’ real email addresses - treat this information as personal and private.

Member Information Fields

Each member has seven pieces of information:

  1. Email Address

    • The member’s real email address
    • Each email address is a hyperlink that opens the “Add/Update/Delete” tab with this address pre-populated
    • Required for all members
    • Case-insensitive (stored and matched in lowercase)

  2. Name (Pseudonym)

    • The identifier shown to other members
    • Can be any text string that identifies the member
    • Can be the person’s real name or any useful identifier
    • Used to create direct messaging addresses: ~name.list@domain.com
    • Spaces in names are converted to underscores in email addresses
    • Valid characters: alphanumeric, spaces, and: #$%&*+-/?^_
    • EMail Parrot™ does not require unique names (duplicates allowed)
    • When a DM email is received, it’s delivered to all members whose name matches the DM address

  3. Admin

    • True/False flag indicating list administrators
    • Admins are automatically added to admin.<list>@emparrot.com sublist
    • Any member can email the admin sublist
    • Receives quarantined email notification (unless “No Email” is set)
    • Required for managing list information on the admin web portal (must also have web login)

  4. Moderate

    • True/False flag indicating if member’s emails require admin approval
    • When True, member’s emails are quarantined for admin review
    • Useful for new or untrusted members
    • Admin must release quarantined emails in order to be delivered

  5. Self Email

    • True/False flag indicating if member receives copies of their own sent emails
    • When True, member sees their own emails in their inbox
    • Use Case: Record-keeping, email threading, ensuring delivery
    • Default: False - most people don’t want email “echo”

  6. No Email

    • True/False flag indicating this address won’t receive emails (unless DM email)
    • Member can send from this address but won’t receive
    • Use Case: Members with multiple email addresses (work, personal, mobile)
    • Prevents duplicate emails to the same person
    • Example:
      • john@work.com (Self Email: True, No Email: False) - receives emails
      • john@gmail.com (Self Email: False, No Email: True) - can send, won’t receive
      • john@mobile.com (Self Email: False, No Email: True) - can send, won’t receive
    • Result: John can send from any address but only receives at work email

  7. Sublists

    • Comma-separated list of sublists this member belongs to
    • Sublist names cannot contain: commas, periods, or most special characters
    • Use: lowercase letters, numbers, dashes, underscores
    • Spaces in sublist names are replaced by underscores in email addresses
    • Sublists prefixed with ^ are restricted (only sublist members can send)

Special Sublists

Admin Sublist:

  • admin.<list>@emparrot.com is automatically created for all lists
  • Contains all members marked as admin
  • Any member can email the admin sublist
  • Used for administrative communications

Address Book Sublist:

  • addressbook.<list>@emparrot.com is predefined
  • When addressed, responds to sender with list of all members
  • Only works if “Disable Direct User-to-User Emails” is disabled
  • Useful for distributing contact information

Managing Email Lists with CSV Files

For large email groups, CSV files provide easier bulk management than the web interface.

Downloading Member List

  1. Click “Download Member Information as CSV” button
  2. File downloads to your browser’s download area
  3. Filename matches your list address with .csv extension
  4. Contains all member information in columnar format

Treat this file as sensitive as it contains everyones real email address

CSV File Format

Columns:

  • email
  • name
  • sublist
  • list_admin
  • self_email
  • nomail
  • moderate

Example in spreadsheet:

emailnamesublistlist_adminself_emailnomailmoderate
john@example.comJohn Doesalesfalsefalsefalsefalse
jane@example.comJane Smith“sales,support,admin”truefalsefalsefalse

Example as text file:

email,name,sublist,list_admin,self_email,nomail,moderate
john@example.com,John Doe,sales,false,false,false,false
jane@example.com,Jane Smith,"sales,support,admin",true,false,false,false

Important: Multiple Sublists

When a member belongs to multiple sublists, the sublists field must be enclosed in double quotes. This is because:

  • Sublists are comma-separated: sales,support,dev
  • CSV files also use commas as field separators
  • Double quotes tell the CSV parser that internal commas are data, not delimiters

Examples:

Single sublist (quotes optional):

john@example.com,John Doe,sales,false,false,false,false

Multiple sublists (quotes required):

jane@example.com,Jane Smith,"sales,support,admin",true,false,false,false

Most spreadsheet applications handle this automatically when saving as CSV. If editing manually in a text editor, remember to add double quotes around multi-sublist entries.

Uploading Modified CSV

  1. Edit your CSV file using spreadsheet application or text editor
  2. Save as .csv format (not spreadsheet’s default format)
  3. In admin portal, choose upload mode:
    • Unchecked (default): Modify/add members in CSV file only
    • “Replace All Members on Upload” checked: Remove all members not in CSV file
  4. Click “Upload CSV File” button
  5. Select your CSV file
  6. Click “OK” to process

Caution: When using “Replace All Members on Upload,” members not in the CSV file will be removed from the list. This cannot be undone.

Add/Update/Delete Member

This tab manages individual member information.

Adding or Updating a Member

  1. Enter email address in the “Enter Email Address to Add/Update/Delete” field

    • Can be pre-populated from “List Membership” tab by clicking email link
    • Or entered manually

  2. Lookup existing member (optional)

    • If updating an existing member, click “Lookup Member Information”
    • This pre-populates all fields with current member information
    • Helpful when updating just one piece of information

  3. Fill in all required fields:

    • Email Address: Valid email address (required)
    • Name or Identifier: Member’s pseudonym (required)
    • Admin: True or False (defaults to False)
    • Moderate: True or False (defaults to False)
    • Self Email: True or False (defaults to False)
    • No Email: True or False (defaults to False)
    • Sublists: Comma-separated list (can be blank)

  4. Click “Add/Update Member”

    • All fields are updated/saved
    • Review all fields before clicking as all data is overwritten

Changing a Member’s Email Address

EMail Parrot™ is email address based - each member is unique by their email address. To change a member’s email:

  1. Add the new email address as a new member with desired settings
  2. Delete the old email address

You cannot modify an email address directly.

Deleting a Member

  1. Enter the member’s email address
  2. Click “Delete Member”
  3. Member is immediately removed from the list

Important: There is no “undo” for deletion. If done by mistake, the member’s information must be re-entered.

Sublist Addressing

Members can belong to any number of sublists. Email addresses for sublists:

  • Format: <sublist>.<list>@emparrot.com
  • Example: sales.team@emparrot.com

Sublist names must conform to email address specifications:

  • Cannot contain: commas, periods, many special characters
  • Recommended: letters, numbers, dashes, underscores
  • Case insensitive (converted to lowercase in addresses)
  • Spaces replaced with underscores

Restricted Sublists

Sublists can be open (default) or restricted by prefixing the name with ^.

Open Sublists:

  • Any member of the main list can send to this sublist
  • Only sublist members receive the emails
  • Non-sublist senders will NOT receive replies
  • Example: marketing.team@emparrot.com

Restricted Sublists (^ prefix):

  • Only sublist members can send to this sublist
  • Only sublist members receive emails
  • Non-members sending to restricted sublists are quarantined
  • Example: ^board.team@emparrot.com
  • Use Cases: Executive communications, HR discussions, financial teams, sensitive subgroups

VPE and Restricted Sublists: Even if your list has VPE (Virtual Private Email) enabled, restricted sublists provide additional security:

  • External addresses cannot send to restricted sublists
  • External addresses cannot use VPE addressing through restricted sublists
  • Provides protection for sensitive subgroups within open email groups

Example Hierarchy:

  • team@emparrot.com - Main list, VPE enabled, all members
  • sales.team@emparrot.com - Open sublist, any member can send
  • ^executive.team@emparrot.com - Restricted, only executives can send
  • ^hr.team@emparrot.com - Restricted, only HR team can send

Group Settings

Access this tab to configure list properties and view usage statistics.

List Properties

Each email group has configurable properties. Sublists inherit the same properties as the main email group.

Usage Report

Click the checkbox next to “Update List Usage” to retreive the groups summary of the current month’s activity. This report includes:

  • Number of email deliveries
  • GB of data sent
  • Updated every 15 minutes

Communication Settings

Update List Common Name

The list common name sets the display name recipients see in the FROM field. This is set during list creation but can be modified here.

Example: “Project Team”, “Smith Family”, “PTA Board”

Disable Direct User-to-User Emails

Controls whether members can send private direct messages to each other using ~pseudonym.list@domain.com addressing.

Options:

  • False (default): Members can use ~pseudonym addressing for DMs
  • True: All ~pseudonym addressing is blocked

Use Case: Prevent private messages between members if you want all communication to be visible to the group or admins.

Allow CC/BCC

Controls whether emails can be delivered when the group email address is in the CC or BCC field instead of TO field.

Options:

  • False (default): Only TO: field accepted
  • True: CC and BCC addressing allowed

Why Default is False: Some spammers BCC large groups of addresses. Blocking CC/BCC improves security.

Use Case: Enable for workflows requiring reply-all with CC, or when members need to include the list in ongoing conversations.

Allow Auto-Forwarding

Controls whether auto-forwarded emails from members are accepted.

Options:

  • False (default): Auto-forwarded emails rejected
  • True: Auto-forwarded emails from member addresses accepted

What This Does:

By default, EMail Parrot™ rejects emails if the original sender isn’t a member. However, email services like Gmail and Zoho allow automatic forwarding of received emails to other addresses. When auto-forwarding is configured, the forwarded email appears to come from the forwarding address (the member), not the original sender.

If this option is enabled and a member’s email account is configured to auto-forward emails to an EMail Parrot™ list, those forwarded emails will be accepted and delivered as if sent by the member.

Use Case:

A closed group that wants one address to act as an input-only channel without enabling full VPE.

Example: Your team has a closed list team@emparrot.com. Your company has a customer support address support@company.com. You want customer emails to be visible to your team for discussion, but you don’t want to enable full VPE (which would allow your team to reply to customers through the list).

Solution:

  1. Add support@company.com as a member of team@emparrot.com
  2. Set this member to “No Mail” to prevent email loops
  3. Configure support@company.com to auto-forward all emails to team@emparrot.com
  4. Enable “Allow Auto-Forwarding”
  5. Result: All customer emails forwarded to your team list for internal discussion

This enables single-address input-only workflows for closed groups without the full external addressing capabilities of VPE.

Important: The member’s address doing the forwarding must be in the list.

Important: The member’s address doing the forwarding must be marked as “No Mail” to prevent email loops and extra usage by your list.

Security & Content Settings

Strip External Content

Controls removal of tracking pixels and externally-referenced content from HTML emails.

Options:

  • True (default): External content (automatically loaded web content) stripped
  • False: External content preserved

What This Does:

Tracking pixels and other tracking mechanisms collect data through externally-referenced content (images, scripts loaded from external URLs). This setting removes such external references to protect member privacy from email tracking.

What’s Removed:

  • Tracking pixels (1x1 invisible images)
  • External JavaScript references
  • External CSS references used for tracking

What’s NOT Removed:

  • Pictures directly embedded as email attachments
  • Web links (URLs)
  • Inline images that are part of the email content

Recommendation: Leave enabled (True) for privacy protection.

Filter Attachments Based On Content-Type

Controls whether attachments are filtered by their MIME Content-Type header in addition to file extension.

Options:

  • False (default): Filter by file extension only
  • True: Also filter by MIME Content-Type

What This Does:

Some attacks send executable attachments with innocent-looking file extensions (.pdf, .doc) but set the MIME “Content-Type” to dangerous types like application/x-executable or application/x-zip-compressed. Poorly written email clients might execute these files based on Content-Type, ignoring the extension.

This setting removes attachments based on their declared MIME type, regardless of filename:

  • application/x-executable - Executables
  • application/x-zip-compressed - ZIP archives
  • Other dangerous content types

Security Benefit: More thorough than extension checking alone. Catches malicious files disguised with safe extensions.

Caution: This check relies on email clients marking attachments with correct Content-Type. Simpler email clients don’t always set this correctly, which can lead to legitimate attachments being removed.

Recommendation:

  • Enable (True): Maximum security when members use standards-compliant email clients (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail)
  • Disable (False): If legitimate attachments are being incorrectly removed

Default: Disabled (False). Extension-based filtering is always active.

Remove Archive File Attachments

Controls removal of archive files (.zip, .tar, .rar, .7z, etc.).

Options:

  • True (default): Archive files removed
  • False: Archive files allowed

What This Does:

Archive files can contain hidden executables or malware. By default, EMail Parrot™ removes both:

  • Executable files (.exe, .bat, .com) - Always removed
  • Archive files (.zip, .tar, .rar, .7z) - Removed by default

Why Archives Are Dangerous:

  • Can contain executables hidden inside
  • Virus scanners may not scan inside archives
  • Users may extract and run malicious files

When to Disable:

Some groups legitimately need to exchange archive files:

  • Software development teams sharing code
  • Design teams sharing asset packages
  • Groups exchanging compressed file collections

Recommendation:

  • Leave enabled (True) unless truly necessary
  • If disabled, ensure members:
    • Scan archives before opening
    • Trust the sender
    • Understand the risks

Important: Executable files (.exe, .bat, .com) are always removed regardless of this setting.

Advanced Protection While Processing Emails

Controls strictness of security checks during email processing.

Options:

  • False (default): Standard protection
  • True: Advanced (stricter) protection

What This Does:

When enabled, EMail Parrot™ applies more stringent security checks:

SPF/DKIM/DMARC Authentication:

  • Standard: Accepts “pass” and “questionable”
  • Advanced: Requires “pass” only, rejects “questionable”

Virus Scanning:

  • Standard: Normal detection thresholds
  • Advanced: More aggressive detection, lower tolerance

Spam Detection:

  • Standard: Reasonable spam score tolerance
  • Advanced: Stricter spam score requirements

Dangerous URLs:

  • Standard: Known malicious URLs blocked
  • Advanced: More thorough link analysis, stricter blocking

Trade-off:

With Advanced Protection enabled:

  • ✅ Higher security, better protection
  • ⚠️ More emails may be quarantined for admin review
  • ⚠️ More false positives requiring admin attention

Use Cases:

  • Financial communications
  • Legal discussions
  • Healthcare coordination
  • Activist groups
  • Any list handling sensitive information

Recommendation:

  • Standard (False): For most groups
  • Advanced (True): For high-security environments where accuracy is more important than convenience

Default: Disabled (False) - standard protection active.

Enable Virtual Private Email (VPE)

Controls whether the list is “closed” (members only) or “open” (members can email external addresses).

Default: False (Closed Group)

When Disabled (Closed Group):

  • Only members can email the list
  • Members cannot email external addresses through the list
  • External addresses cannot email the list
  • Maximum privacy within the group

When Enabled (Open Group with VPE):

EMail Parrot™ provides two additional capabilities:

  1. Members can email external addresses using the + addressing pattern:

    • Format: +external=at=domain+list@domain.com
    • Example: +vendor=at=supplies.com+team@yourdomain.com
    • External recipient sees email from team@yourdomain.com
    • Replies route back through EMail Parrot™ to the list

  2. External addresses can send TO the list/sublists directly:

    • External contacts can email team@yourdomain.com
    • Or email sales.team@yourdomain.com
    • All emails pass through EMail Parrot™ security scanning

What External Addresses CANNOT Do:

  • Cannot use member direct messaging (~pseudonym) addresses
  • Cannot use VPE external addressing (+ pattern)
  • Only list members can use ~ and + addressing patterns
  • Cannot request the list’s address book

VPE Use Cases:

  • Business: VA email delegation, support team responding to customers, freelancer teams presenting as one brand
  • Personal: Unlimited email aliases for stores/services, leak detection, professional boundaries
  • Teams: Contractors needing professional email, seasonal workers, project-based access

Security Note: All external emails still pass through EMail Parrot™ security:

  • Virus scanning (ClamAV + AWS SES)
  • Spoofing detection (SPF/DKIM/DMARC)
  • Malicious attachment removal
  • Tracking pixel removal
  • Dangerous link detection

Consider using restricted sublists (^prefix) for sensitive subgroups even within VPE-enabled lists.

Learn More: See VPE Overview and VPE Starter Guide

Enable Email Encryption [Coming Soon]

Status: Not Currently Available

Any email passing through the EMail Parrot system can be encrypted and the service will pass the content through unchanged. This does prevent EMail Parrot from scanning the email contents for threats. It also means that all recipients need to have the decryption key for the email and shared decryption keys is a security risk.

To address these issues EMail Parrot can be configured to accept emails encrypted for your email list and then send emails to recipients using their personal public encryption key. This 2 stage encryption process enable EMail Parrot to scan the emails for threats and doesn’t need shared decryption keys.

If you don’t want the contents of your emails to be viewed or scanned by EMail Parrot you can encrypt the contents of the email with a shared key and also send the email using EMail Parrot’s 2 stage encryption. This “double encryption” addresses the concern around shared keys as these useless without the recipeint’s personal key as well.

Enable this feature to require all emails sent to your list require encryption for your list’s unique encryption keys and require that all outgoing email from your list are encrypted per the recipeint’s encryption key.

This Feature is in Devalopment and is Coming Soon*

Data Management Settings

Immediate Deletion of Sent Emails

Controls how long successfully delivered emails are retained.

Options:

  • False (default): Retain for 30 days
  • True: Delete immediately after delivery

What This Does:

Default Behavior (False):

  • Successfully delivered emails retained for 30 days
  • Allows for email reprocessing if issues arise
  • Provides troubleshooting capabilities
  • Useful during initial setup and testing

Immediate Deletion (True):

  • Emails deleted as soon as all member emails are sent
  • Maximum privacy, minimal data retention
  • Cannot reprocess emails if issues arise later
  • Meets strict data minimization requirements

Important Exception:

Quarantined emails are always saved for up to 30 days regardless of this setting. This is required for admin review functionality and cannot be disabled. Quarantined emails are deleted when:

  • Admin deletes them manually
  • Admin reprocesses them successfully
  • 30 days elapse without admin action

Trade-offs:

  • ✅ Maximum privacy and minimal storage
  • ⚠️ No email reprocessing capability
  • ⚠️ Troubleshooting becomes harder

Recommendation:

  • Disabled (False): During initial setup and testing
  • Enabled (True): After list is stable and configuration verified
  • Enabled (True): For groups with strict data retention policies

Max Email Size

Sets the maximum size for individual emails (1-10MB).

Default: 1MB

Why 1MB Default:

  1. Ensures no data usage overage charges (see below)
  2. Improves email delivery speed
  3. Compatible with all major email providers

Maximum: 10MB (lowest common denominator among major ISPs)

Configuration: Can be set between 1MB and 10MB based on needs.

Understanding Email Size and Data Overages

EMail Parrot™ has two base monthly usage limits:

  1. Email count: 5,000 deliveries per month
  2. Total data: 5GB per month

The 1MB Sweet Spot

With the default 1MB email size limit, you cannot exceed the data limit:

Math:

  • 5,000 emails × 1MB maximum = 5GB maximum possible
  • You’ll hit the email count limit before the data limit
  • Only charged for email count overages ($5 per 10,000 emails)
  • No surprise data charges

Higher Limits

If you set email size to 5MB:

  • 1,000 emails @ 5MB each = 5GB (no overage)
  • 2,000 emails @ 3MB each = 6GB (1GB data overage = $5 charge for an additional 10GB of data)
  • Average email size determines if you hit data limit before email count limit

Examples

5,000 emails averaging 0.8MB:

  • Total: 4GB
  • Result: ✅ No overage (under both limits)

5,000 emails averaging 1.2MB:

  • Total: 6GB
  • Result: ⚠️ Data overage (6GB > 5GB limit)
  • Charge: +$5 for overage with an additional 10GB added to month’s data usage limit

6,000 emails averaging 0.8MB:

  • Total: 4.8GB
  • Result: ⚠️ Email count overage (6,000 > 5,000 limit)
  • Charge: +$5 for overage with an additional 10,000 emails added to month’s usage limit

16,000 emails averaging 0.5MB:

  • Total: 8GB
  • Result: ⚠️ Email count overage only
  • Charge: +$10 for 11,000 email overage ($5 for an additional 10,000 emails and $5 for a second allocation of 10,000 emails)

Overage Charges

Email Count Overages:

  • $5 per 10,000 emails over 5,000
  • Purchased in 10,000 blocks that also increase data alocation by 10GB

Data Overages:

  • $5 per 10GB over 5GB
  • Purchased in 10GB data blocks that also increase email alocation by 10,000

Important: Setting a higher email size limit (e.g., 5MB) doesn’t cost anything by itself. You’re only charged if your total monthly usage exceeds the limits.

Monitoring Usage

Check your current month’s usage anytime in the “Group Settings” tab:

  • Real-time email count
  • Real-time data usage
  • Updated every 15 minutes
  • No automatic warnings (check manually)

Recommendations

Keep 1MB limit if:

  • Your group exchanges mostly text emails
  • You want to avoid any data overage charges
  • You don’t regularly need large attachments

Increase limit if:

  • You regularly need to send photos (2-5MB)
  • You share presentations or documents (2-10MB)
  • Monitor your average email size to avoid surprises

Best Practice: Start with 1MB default. Increase only when necessary and monitor average email size in usage statistics.

Administrator Responsibility

Email group administrators are required to maintain a maximum email size limit such that emails can be delivered to ALL group members. Different email providers have different limits:

  • Gmail: 25MB
  • Outlook: 20MB
  • Yahoo: 25MB
  • Some corporate: 10MB
  • Some older systems: 5MB

Sending emails to a member that cannot receive them is impolite and adverse to EMail Parrot™ operation. Such issues must be addressed by the administrator in a timely manner or service may be suspended.

Best Practice: If members report not receiving emails, check if size is the issue. Reduce max email size or ask members to use links to shared files instead of large attachments.

Quarantined Emails

Emails are held in quarantine for admin review when they violate list rules or security policies.

Why Emails Are Quarantined

Emails are quarantined for various reasons including:

Member & Permission Issues:

  • Email from moderated member (requires admin approval)
  • Email received from a non-member (not in list)
  • Restricted sublist (^) addressed by non-member of that sublist
  • Direct messaging (~) when “Disable Direct User-to-User Emails” is enabled

Size & Configuration Issues:

  • Email exceeds size limit set in group properties
  • CC/BCC addressing when “Allow CC/BCC” is disabled

Security Issues:

  • SPF/DKIM/DMARC authentication issues (soft fails or failures)
  • Dangerous content detected (virus, malware, suspicious attachments)
  • High spam score (particularly with Advanced Protection enabled)

Other:

  • Other security or configuration violations
  • Failed processing for technical reasons

Retention

Quarantined emails are held for up to 30 days. Admins can:

  • Release (reprocess) the email
  • Delete the email
  • Download the email for inspection

After 30 days without admin action, quarantined emails are automatically deleted.

List Quarantined Emails Tab

This tab displays all currently quarantined emails for the selected list.

Quarantine Table

Each quarantined email shows:

  • Quarantined Email ID: Click to pre-populate “Manage Quarantined Emails” tab
  • Quarantine Reason: Why the email was held
  • Quarantine Date (UTC): When email was quarantined
  • Sender: Who sent the email
  • To: Intended recipient(s)
  • Subject: Email subject line

Bulk Deletion

Checkboxes are provided next to each email for rapid deletion:

  1. Check all emails you want to delete
  2. Click “Delete Selected Quarantined Emails”
  3. All checked emails are permanently deleted

Use Case: Quickly clear known spam or unwanted emails without reviewing each one individually.

Manage Quarantined Emails Tab

This tab provides detailed management of individual quarantined emails.

Email Actions

Download Email:

  1. Enter Quarantined Email ID (or click from “List Quarantined Emails” tab)
  2. Click “Download Quarantined Email”
  3. Opens new browser tab displaying raw email
  4. Review content to determine disposition

Note: Very large emails may break the download function.

Delete Email:

  1. Enter Quarantined Email ID
  2. Click “Delete Quarantined Email”
  3. Email permanently deleted

Reprocess Email:

  1. Enter Quarantined Email ID
  2. Select appropriate overrides (see below)
  3. Click “Reprocess Quarantined Email”
  4. Email is reprocessed with selected overrides

Reprocessing Overrides

To reprocess a quarantined email, you must override the check that caused quarantine or change the list configuration that caused the quarantine:

Override Moderate

Use When: Email is from a moderated member and you want to release it

What It Does: Bypasses moderation requirement for this email only

Procedure:

  1. Select “Override Moderate” checkbox
  2. Click “Reprocess Quarantined Email”
  3. Email delivered to members

Override Size Check

Use When: Email exceeds size limit but you want to deliver it anyway

What It Does: Bypasses size limit for this email only

Procedure:

  1. Select “Override Size Check” checkbox
  2. Click “Reprocess Quarantined Email”
  3. Email delivered if members can receive it

Important Warning: Email systems have different size limits (6MB-25MB). Extremely large emails may still fail delivery at recipients’ email providers even after overriding EMail Parrot™ size check.

Override Membership Check

Use When:

  • Email from non-member
  • Member emailing sublist they don’t belong to

What It Does: Bypasses membership verification for this email only

Procedure for Non-Member Email:

  1. Select “Override Membership Check” checkbox
  2. Enter “Name” to identify sender (system doesn’t know non-member)
  3. Click “Reprocess Quarantined Email”
  4. Email delivered with provided name as sender identifier

Procedure for Restricted Sublist:

  1. Select “Override Membership Check” checkbox
  2. Click “Reprocess Quarantined Email”
  3. Email delivered to sublist

Caution: Generally not advisable to process non-member emails because:

  • Unknown to members
  • They won’t receive replies (not in list)
  • Could confuse members about who’s in the group

Use Case:

  • List member sends email from an email address that is not the address the member has configured for the list

Send to Admins Only

Use When: You want to review content with other admins and in an email client before releasing to all members

What It Does: Delivers email only to list administrators

Procedure:

  1. Select “Send to Admins Only” checkbox
  2. Select other necessary overrides (Moderate, Size, Membership)
  3. Click “Reprocess Quarantined Email”
  4. Email delivered only to admin sublist members

Use Cases:

  • Reviewing potentially sensitive content
  • Discussing whether to release to full list
  • Testing email from non-member before full release

Send Admin Email

This tab allows an administrator to send an email as admin.<list>@emparrot.com without revealing personal email addresses. This email can be sent to any email address or sent to all list members as a BCC by selecting the “BCC All” option. This option is available on both open and closed email lists.

Use Cases

1. Email External Addresses:

  • Validate requests to join the list
  • Respond to inquiries about the list
  • Contact vendors or external parties
  • Any external communication without using personal email

2. Email All Members (BCC):

  • Broadcast announcements to members as the list admin (not as a list member)
  • Set group rules and guidelines
  • Send important notifications
  • All members receive but replies only go to admins

How to Use

Sending to External Addresses

  1. Enter external email address(es) in “Enter External Email Address” field
    • Separate multiple addresses with semicolons (;)
    • Example: vendor@company.com; contact@supplier.com
  2. Enter subject line
  3. Enter email body (text only, no HTML)
  4. Click “Send Email”

Result: Recipients see email from admin.<list>@emparrot.com, not your personal email.

Broadcasting to All Members (BCC)

  1. Check the “Select BCC All” checkbox
  2. Do NOT enter email address (BCC All overrides address field)
  3. Enter subject line
  4. Enter email body (text only)
  5. Click “Send Email”

Result:

  • All members receive the email (via BCC)
  • Replies go ONLY to admin sublist
  • Members don’t see other recipients
  • Useful for announcements where you want replies to stay with admins

Use Cases for BCC All:

  • List rules and guidelines
  • Important announcements
  • Policy changes
  • Emergency notifications
  • Any broadcast where replies should only go to admins

Important Notes

Sending to List Address:

You cannot send to the distribution list address (team@emparrot.com) from this tab because admin.<list>@emparrot.com is not a member of the list. To send to the distribution list:

  1. Use your registered member email address
  2. Send to the list address normally
  3. Email will be processed through EMail Parrot™ with your pseudonym

Email Format:

Admin emails are text only (no HTML formatting). This ensures compatibility and security.

Sender Address:

All emails sent from this tab appear to come from admin.<list>@emparrot.com, protecting administrator privacy and allows administrators to speak as a group.

Send Address Book

At the bottom of this tab is a “Send Address Book” button.

What It Does:

  • Generates list of all members’ direct email addresses
  • Format: ~pseudonym.list@domain.com for each member
  • Emails this address book to all list members
  • Only works if “Disable Direct User-to-User Emails” is disabled

Use Case: Publishing all member direct message addresses so members know how to contact each other privately.

Note: If direct messaging is enabled individual members can request the address book by emailing addressbook.yourlist@emparrot.com.

Caution: This reveals the mapping between pseudonyms and how to contact each person directly. Only use if your group wants this level of connectivity.

Custom Domains

This document has been written with the assumption that the email list is homed at the emparrot.com domain. This improves clarity and simplicity.

EMail Parrot supports operation on a custom domain - your domain that you own. These custom domains would be used instead of emparrot.com in the examples in this document.

Domain Assignment to EMail Parrot

To operate correctly EMail Parrot needs ownership of the DNS (Domain Name System) records for the domain. In most cases you will want to control the records for your top domain (mydomain.org). While EMail Parrot can be configured to operated on a top domain most will want to assign a subdomain to EMail Parrot (emp.mydomain.org). The name of the subdomain can be any valid domain text you like, most use “emp” as this is short and makes the use clear.

EMail Parrot will configure the MX (email) record for the assigned domain/subdomain to route through our systems and for subdomains will redirect web traffic requests to the parent domain. HTTPS requests to emp.mydomain.org will generate a redirect to mydomain.org.

Configuring Custom Domains

To bring your domain to EMail Parrot as a custom domain contact support@emparrot.com and we will help you configure your DNS records. We will also configure a list of domain admins that will be the only admins allowed to create or delete email lists at your domain.

List Names at Custom Domains

List names only need to be unique within a domain. This means:

  • You can have support@yourdomain.com
  • Another customer can have support@theirdomain.com
  • Common list names (support, sales, team) are available at every custom domain

Benefit: You don’t need to worry about someone else taking your preferred list name.

Pricing for Custom Domains

To support a custom domain we charge $5/month in addition to the $5/month for the first email list. However, with a custom domain there is no addition charge for any additional email lists. You can create as many email lists as you like and each list can be configured with unique properties. This allows for some to be closed while others are open (vpe).

Usage amounts (emails and data) are aggregated for all lists at your domain. Overages are calculation based on the total emails and data sent by all the lists under your domain. A $5 overage charge will add 10,000 emails and 10GB of data to your domain - similar to the list overage charges.

Support

Reporting Issues

These administrative functions are complex with many possible configurations and edge cases. If you encounter issues:

Email: support@emparrot.com

Include:

  • Clear description of the issue
  • Steps to reproduce the problem
  • List name (if applicable)
  • Screenshots (if helpful)
  • Any error messages received

We respond within 24 hours.

Documentation Issues

If you find errors or unclear sections in this documentation, please let us know at support@emparrot.com.

Return to Admin Portal

EMail Parrot™ Administrator Portal

Additional Resources

Questions? Email support@emparrot.com