Cooks like to trade recipes, teachers like to share resources, travelers love to exchange anecdotes, fan clubs can't help but swap talk, dreamy eyed, about their objects of affection and geeks love to talk computers. We are all part of informal communities of people with common interests.

What are Mailing Lists?

Also called e-mail lists, mailing lists are communities of people formed around topics of common interest.

Mailing Lists are among the earliest developments of the Internet and have provided for the development of the "community feeling" that is one of the hallmark features of the Internet. There are mailing lists that cover just about any subject you can think of. And if there isn't a Mailing List for the topic you love, you can start it and run it yourself.

It's Really an E-Mailing List

E-mail is now used on a regular basis by over 100 million people making it the most frequently used Internet communications platform. Mailing lists remain a relatively untapped and underutilized Internet resource. This is mainly due to the complexity of administrating them and the lack of user-friendly support services. But that is starting to change. They are now in a state similar to the World Wide Web prior to the emergence of directories, search engines and web site services and the explosive growth of the period from 1993-1995.

But that is not to say they E-mail lists are a secret. There are over 200,000 E-mail lists in operation serving 15 million subscribers who receive some16 billion messages per year. Some of the most useful information on the Internet can be found inside of e-mail lists.

Mailing lists are conducted via e-mail, so joining, administering and participating in a mailing list requires nothing more than the email program you use now.

A mailing list allows people to send email to each other or to a group of subscribers easily. Instead of sending email to each person on the list, subscribers of a mailing list can send their message to one address, which then automatically sends the message to everyone else. And the message doesn't show the e-mail addresses of all the people who are on the list.

Good for the Digest-ion

Many mailing lists have two subscription options: normal and digest.

If you subscribe to the normal version of the mailing list, you receive by e-mail a copy of every message as soon as it is sent ("posted") to the list.

Most busy mailing lists also offer a digest version for members to request instead of the regular list.  Subscribers to the digest version of the list receive a large compilation of all messages accumulated in the list for specific period, like a day, a week or a month. You’ll get the same messages as a subscriber to the normal list, but they will all be packed into one email message instead of a bunch of shorter, individual ones.

Lists can be very formal or completely informal depending on the main topic and how the moderator - the person(s) who administer the list - set up the rules.

You can join (subscribe to) the list at any time and drop out (unsubscribe) at any time.

Messages are sent by email by people authorized to send messages to the mailing list program. That program relays the message to every email address that is subscribed to the mailing list, whether that is 10 people or 100,000.

Mailing A List (or three) for everyone

There are literally tens of thousands of mailing lists out there waiting for you to subscribe and join their ranks. Several sites on the Web can help you find and select some mailing lists that might interest you. One such site is the Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists (http://www.neosoft.com/internet/paml) Web page. This site is updated monthly and has a searchable database of mailing lists.

On the P.A.M.L. site browse the mailing list titles. When you find one that interests you, click on it, read the description page and follow the directions to subscribe. That's all there is to it. You'll soon be receiving e-mail messages from the list.

In a future column we'll show you how to use one of the free services to set up your own Mailing lists. For a sneak peak, check out http://www.tropica.com, which is a great source for lists that you can subscribe to.

Announcement Lists One Way: Do Not Enter!

Some Mailing Lists are set up where only the list administrator can submit messages; subscribers only read and never contribute to the list. These are great to use for newsletters, journals, and club announcements.

Many Web sites provide this service to their regular readers. You can sign up to get daily, weekly or month updates from travels sites with late breaking special deals, you can subscribe to book shops and get notification whenever any of your favorite authors finishes a new book.

Use in Moderation

A moderated list is managed by an individual who examines the messages before they’re distributed to the group.

Hopefully the moderator functions not as a censor but to make sure that messages posted to the list are appropriate to the list and its readers. This can make sure that no junk spam (Junk e-mail) nor flames (highly emotional, often personal rants sent by e-mail)  are sent out over the list.

Unmoderated lists, on the other hand, distribute copies of everything that is posted to the group. Most mailing lists fall into this category simply because there are few people who can afford to devote the time and patience to check, edit and cull through the many messages.

Unmoderated lists, however, can have the problem of postings which have nothing to do with the genuine purpose and interests of the list and the subjects being discussed.

Automated Lists

For unmoderated lists, a computer program can handle the work of managing and distributing messages and handling subscriptions and unsubscriptions. The three most popular list-handling programs are Listserv, Listproc and Majordomo.

It really isn't important how these programs work and what differences that have except how it affects you in submitting messages or changing your subscription.

To sign up for a subscription to an automated list, you will send an email message to the list control program

 Okay, I’ve Subscribed. Now What?

After you successfully subscribing to a list you will receive a welcome message telling you that you are now subscribed to the list. Keep this message in your email archives in case you need to unsubscribe later.

You may also get a rundown on any rules the group has accepted for posting messages and, if it’s an automated list, an explanation of the computer commands you’ll need to know to get other information about the list.

Once you’re on the list we recommend that you lurk (only read the list) for a week or so to get a feel for the tone of conversation on the list. You’ll also pick up on any convention that your messages are expected to follow. Some formal lists expect everyone to follow set protocols and members can become quite verbal if you fail to follow the community rules.

Here are a few other suggestions for mailing list etiquette:

• Be polite.  Don't flame. Hold your tongue and count to ten if someone posts a message that gets you excited.
• Read the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) file if the list has one. This will tell you about the list and what questions have already been discussed and what subjects are on and off limits.
• Use the SUBJECT line - make it short AND meaningful.
• Pay attention to where you’re sending your messages. Many  mailing lists have more than one e-mail address associated with them. Sometimes they have one address for  administrative commands (subscribing and unsubscribing) and another for posting messages and yet another for the Mailing List Administrator. One sure way to get flamed (receive nasty messages from the group) is to send messages intended for the group’s administration to the whole group.

If you find that you've subscribed to a mailing list that is not for you or has too many postings and it's clogging your e-mail box, follow the "unsubscribe" direction on the welcome message you received from the list. If you didn't follow our advice and lost that message you can try the help page of the Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists for great advice on how to get unsubscribed:

 http://www.neosoft.com/internet/paml/gettingoff.html
 
 

So, go ahead and join the teeming millions out there in mailing list communities. Enjoy!

Feedback
Hate this column? Love this column? Have ideas for what should be covered - Send suggestions for Internet Basics topics by email to basics@y2kegypt.com. The best suggestion gets a PC World-Egypt T-shirt! Kilen Matthews (kilenm@bigfoot.com) is an Internet and Year 2000 Consultant for Y2KEgypt LLC (http://ww.y2kegypt.com).