List Servers - Public Mailing Lists

Module NA16c

What is a Mailing List?
How do Mailing Lists Work?
Where do you find out what lists are available?
List Etiquette

About this document... Wherever you see this separator line in the document, clicking on it will return you to the Contents.

What is a Mailing List? What is it For?

Mailing lists exist to disseminate specialized information to a group of individuals via electronic mail.

Some are outbound only - newsletters: you don't send information to them
Others are "moderated" - someone reads input before sending it to the list, eliminating repetition and unacceptable mail
Others are not moderated - anyone can send anything to the group

Public and Private Lists

Some email lists are public - open to anybody who's interested. Others are private - you need to be approved by a moderator in order to join. To be approved, you may have to be a member of a society or group; or you may have to pay a subscritption fee.

How do Public Mailing Lists Work?

Most mailing lists are handled by software that handles most business:

Adding subscribers
Removing and changing names and addresses
Responding to questions about list membership
Sending outbound mail to subscribers

The three most frequently used list automation programs:

listserv
listproc
majordomo

Here's the process:

You send an email message to an address.

The address is given in a "list of lists"
The email contains a carefully-formatted command for the software; each of the list automation programs has its own set of commands

When your email arrives at the address, it is processed by the list software.

The list software sends you an email explaining what it just did. This may be what you wanted it to do, or it may be an error message trying to explain what went wrong.
In many cases, you will be asked to send email back to the list administration address by replying to the first message you get. This is to confirm that the email address was correct the first time.You are not subscribed until this message is correctly sent back - often, within a given time period, such as 48 hours.
If the list is a private one, you may have to wait for a human list moderator to approve your membership. How long to this take? That depends on how busy - or faithful - the list moderator is!
When you have successfully subscribed, you will normally receive a confirmation letter, sent automatically by the list software. Even though it is send automatically, don't delete it! It contains vital information about how to unsuscribe and handle various other common business with list.

Some lists are "private" and require a human administrator to approve your subscription. Naturally, this takes some time and may result in refusal.

List addresses

Most lists have several addresses associated with them. Some are for humans, while others are monitored only by "robot" software.

Administrative address:: Monitored by software, the administrative address handles routine requests such as subscriptions, requests to be dropped from the list, requests for back issues, member names, and other information. This is the address you subscribe to, and you can generally also send a message with Help in place of Subscribe to find out what the robot can do for you, and how to ask it correctly.
Main list address:: This is the address you use when sending information for other members of the list. If the list is "open" your message will be send automatically to all other subscribers; if the list is "moderated" the moderator will read it and decide if it should be sent to the other members.
Moderator's address:: When the robot software doesn't do its job correctly, or if you're completely stumped about how to do something with the list, you can usually write to the human moderator at his or her own address, or one associated with the list. Ordinarily, list members don't need to do that. Don't hassle the moderator unless you have to!

Where do you find out what lists are available?

There are thousands of public mailing lists. Liszt and TileNet are good places to get a lists of lists:

Liszt's URL:

http://www.liszt.com/

TileNet's URL:

http://tile.net/listserv/index.html

Subscribing and Un-subscribing to lists

If you want to subscribe to a list, you send an e-mail message to the list processor. Instructions are found in the listing (see next item).

Example: this is a listing from TileNet -

BLUES-L
Blues Music List
Country:	USA
Site:	Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
Computerized administrator:	listserv@brownvm.brown.edu
Human administrator:	blues-l-request@brownvm.brown.edu
You can join this group by sending the message "*sub BLUES-L your name" to listserv@brownvm.brown.edu*

Mailing List Etiquette

When using moderated or unmoderated lists, there are a couple of points to bear in mind so that you don't make a pest of yourself:

Lurk before you leap
Avoid accidental Spam

Lurk before you Leap

"Lurking" is reading messages without responding. It's a good idea to lurk for a while before you start sending messages right and left to the list. Lurking allows you to figure out the tone of the list and the sorts of things that are - and aren't - discussed on it. If you don't lurk, you could end up losing the trust and respect of the other subscribers.

Avoid Accidental Spam

CAUTION: When you use the Reply feature to send a message to a list, you could accidentally send it to thousands of other users. This can be very annoying to other users. When this gets out of control, it is sometimes called spamming. (Spam is discussed more in module NA10c.) The volume of mail sent to list-subscribers can be very high, so people may drop their subscription in frustration. So:

Always save the message you get when your subscription is confirmed. It has the addresses and important commands for the list server software and (usually) for the human list administrator.
To deal with subscription issues, send email to the listserve software or the human administrator.
Only send a message to the list address when you want everyone on the list to see it!

Some specific suggestions...

For specific suggestions, continue with "Subscribing to Mailing Lists" (Module NA17h).

Review:

Click here to see this modules review questions, na16cr.txt.

Audience:

This is for people who know how to use electronic mail, and want to learn more about mailing lists. See Module NA10c for more information about electronic mail.

Objectives:

When you successfully complete this lesson, you will be able to...

Define mailing list
Describe types of email lists (read-only, moderated, open, public, private)
Subscribing and unsubscribing
List etiquette

About this document...

Module NA16c: List Servers - Public Mailing Lists

Author:: Laurence J. Krieg
Institution:: Department of Computer Information Systems, Washtenaw Community College
History:: Original: Nov 1995 (as part of NA10c)