A mailing list is very much like a conference on a bulletin board system, except
the
conversation
comes to you in your e-mail box. Each time you or any member of the list posts
a
reply to the
conversation, it is distributed to the e-mail box of every member of the list. All of
this
traffic is automated and managed by programs called mailing list managers
(MLM's) or mail
servers. The two most frequently used programs are Listserv and
Majordomo.
Mailing lists are the most basic form of Internet conferencing. They can be public
or
private
and, unlike Usenet newsgroups, which require additional software to run, all you
need to
participate is an e-mail address.
A mailing list is said to be "unmoderated" if all of the messages sent to the list
are
automatically forwarded to each member of the list. In a "moderated" list, all
messages are sent
first to a list moderator, who makes decisions about which postings will or will not
be
sent to
everyone on the list.
If many people are on a mailing list, the traffic in your e-mail box can be
overwhelming. One
way to deal with this is to subscribe to the "digest" version of the list. (Not all
mailing
lists have digest versions). In a digest version, postings are collected into a
single
file and
distributed to the list on a regular basis throughout the day. In this way you
receive
only one big
file at regular intervals rather than hundreds of small ones everyday. Some
digests
are now
posted on the World Wide Web so you can read them with your web browser
and
avoid the traffic in
your e-mail box alltogether.
You join a mailing list by subscribing to it. This doesn't mean you have to pay
money, it
just means you are asking to have your e-mail address added to the distribution
list.
To get off
the mailing list, you have to unsubscribe from the list. You do both by sending
an e-
mail
message to the list administrator with the following in the body of your
message:
subscribe name-of-list your e-mail address
or
unsubscribe name-of-list your e-mail address
The exact way of doing this varies a little from list to list. It's best to request
information
about the list first and that will tell you exactly what you need to do. Once you've
subscribed
to a list you will receive an e-mail message with details about how the list works
and
how to
unsubscribe.
Here are some tips for using mailing lists:
- Subscribe carefully. Subscribe to one or two mailing lists and then wait and
see
what
the volume of traffic is before you subscribe to another. You can easily be
overwhelmed by the
number of messages.
Keep the list subscription instructions! After you send your subscription
e-
mail you will
get a response from the list welcoming you and giving you instructions on how
to
leave the
list. Keep this mail. It is bad netiquette to send messages to the list requesting
help
in
unsubscribing. You are expected to keep the initial instruction file.
Turn off the list when you go on vacation. Some lists have a "vacation"
option. For
others, you have to unsubscribe when you leave and resubscribe when you
return. A
high-traffic
list can generate hundreds of messages a day, and your system administrator
will
not be happy if
you leave those messages in your e-mail box while you are on vacation. In fact,
some systems will
charge you for the disk space.
To avoid the painful experience of being flamed (chastised rudely in a
public forum), pay
attention to the instructions in the initial mail from the list administrator, read the
FAQ if
there is one, and read the list for a few days before you post.
An excellent place to begin looking for mailing lists is the Publicly Accessible
Mailing Lists page from Neosoft, which you can view by subject or by list name.
You can also use the mailing list
search form at Tile.net.
