An "electronic mailing list" is an email service which is topic-specific and available only to subscribers. Mailing lists use special software that performs many of the administrative functions necessary to run it.
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When the Internet was young, a company created a program to run mailing lists on computers and named the program "Listserv". Because of this, many people refer to mailing lists as "listservs". However, "Listserv" is a copyrighted name, and using it to refer to a "mailing list" is like referring to a photocopy as a "Xerox". If you'd like to learn more about the Listserv program, visit www.lsoft.com. In this presentation, we will use the term "electronic mailing list" to refer to this service. |
When signing up for and posting messages to an electronic mailing list, you need to know you are dealing with a piece of software - not a person.
It is important to send your subscription requests, replies, requests for special formatting, and end subscription messages to the correct address. Otherwise, your requests will be ignored by the software.
When you first subscribe to an electronic mailing list you will receive a text document that explains the rules of the mailing list, and all the important addresses. It is very important to keep this document for later use.
For information about the many mailing lists available, visit Liszt, the mailing list directory. This site has links to over 90,000 mailing lists!
Mailing lists provide a medium for people with common interests to share their thoughts.
A simple analogy would be as follows. Consider a group of people who are interested in collecting Teddy Bears. They can form a social group (club) and have a meeting. At the meeting, people talk about their new bears, where the best prices can be found, new and interesting places to visit, and so forth. New people can ask their questions and old timers can offer their experience.
The biggest problem with a social group is getting people together at the same time.
But what if you could have a "virtual" meeting that people could visit any time they wanted, would not have to travel to get there, be there at a specific time, and their thoughts, comments, questions, and answers to other members questions would remain after they left?
This is the essence of an electronic mailing list.
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Every mailing list has a common topic. Be courteous to other members of the list and make sure your messages pertain to that topic. If you want to share a particular piece of non-related information with a member, send them private email instead of posting it to the list. |
Subscribe
Before you can be part of an electronic mailing list, you need to subscribe. Mailing list software takes cares of subscriptions automatically. All you need to do is send email to a specific address and indicate you want to subscribe. This email requires your return email address (usually in the "From:" Field) and the word "subscribe" in the body of the text.
You can subscribe to some Mailing lists by visiting their web page. All you need to do is enter your email address in the box provided and click on submit. The web page takes care of sending this information to the right place. There will also be an option to stop the subscription and even to change the email address the messages are sent to.
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The most common mistake people make when trying to subscribe to a particular list is to send their sign up message to the address for posting messages instead of the address for subscribing. This will usually result in a rejection of the message (only subscribers can post a message to the list), and the subscription is not started. |
Here is an example of a message subscribing to an electronic mailing list.
Once the computer receives your request it generates a reply. The two most common types of replies are are an email message:
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Make sure you put the welcoming message in a safe place. You will need it in the future to unsubscribe, change your address, or contact the list manager. It also contains information about the list and its guidelines that you need to know. |
Receiving mail from the List
Once you successfully subscribe to an electronic mailing list, the mail starts coming in. Depending upon the activity of the List, the number of messages could be anywhere from a few a day to dozens - or more.
Reading mail from the list
Messages from the list appear in your In box, just as any other message. Read them as you would read any other message.
Sending mail to the list
Sending mail to a list is just like sending mail to an individual or a group. Put the list address in the To: field and send as you would any other kind of message. Be sure you are sending the message to the address to post messages, not the address to subscribe. For example let's say you want to subscribe to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Mailing list:
The address to subscribe to the Science Fiction and Fantasy mailing list is:
LISTSERV@loc.gov
The address to send messages to subscribers of the Science Fiction and Fantasy mailing list is:
SF-LIT@RS8.LOC.GOV
The easiest way to send messages to the correct address is to add the list to your address book with a nickname, such as SF-List. Do a "new message to" and click on SF-List to ensure that you are posting to the list and not the machine that handles subscriptions.
Replying to mail from the list
You can reply to:
You need to decide on a case-by-case basis which method to choose.
Although an electronic mailing list is designed to share information, there may be times when it would be more appropriate to send your reply directly to a particular member rather then to the list. Each email from the mailing list includes the email address of the person sending the message.
When you reply to a particular message, the reply can be set up to go to the LIST, the SENDER, or BOTH. The key to successfully replying to messages you see via an electronic mailing list is to ALWAYS check the REPLY TO field before clicking on REPLY. Because most mailing lists are set up to REPLY TO the LIST, you will probably need to create a new message manually to respond only to the SENDER.
Understanding this very important fact can save you from potential embarrassment! For example: A colleague posts a job announcement to the list. You decide to apply for the job, and send a REPLY to the message telling your colleague of your interest in applying, and asking if you can use him/ her as a reference. Because the REPLY TO field on this message was actually the LIST instead of the SENDER, your message is seen by everyone on the list. Unless you have seen someone post a message to the list or have asked them if they subscribe to the list, you have no way of knowing who is READING your message. If this is a professional list, it could be your supervisor.
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To avoid potential embarrassment, ALWAYS check the REPLY TO field before clicking on REPLY to respond to a message! If you do not want your reply to be read by the entire list and the REPLY TO field says the reply will go to the LIST, create a NEW MESSAGE to respond directly to the SENDER. |
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Be equally careful about using the FORWARD command on a message you receive via an electronic mailing list! If you forward a message and the person who receives it does a REPLY to it, the message will go to whoever is listed in the REPLY field - which probably will be the LIST, not YOU as the SENDER. The potential for embarrassment is just as real when replying to a forwarded message from a list! |
In a moderated mailing list, there are one or more people who read all the messages that are sent to the mailing list, decide if they contain appropriate information, and if they do, allow them to pass through. If they do not contain appropriate content or if they contain content expressed in a manner that violates the rules of the mailing list, the moderator can reject the message. It is up to the individual moderator how this is handled.
Moderated mailing lists stay a lot more on the topic and usually offer a lot more value to the members. However, they are more expensive to run because the time and expense of the moderator must be considered.
Unmoderated mailing lists are a lot more common because they are easier to run. The mailing list software takes care of everything, which includes taking and canceling subscriptions, receiving and forwarding all messages, and reorganizing the information as requested. However, the content of the messages is never checked. The mailing list topic could be embroidery and the members could choose to talk about oils for their race cars.
Once a person subscribes to an electronic mailing list the biggest problem they have is how to handle all those messages. There are two things you can do to make your life easier.
1. Create a filter and special mailbox for these messages.
You will receive mailing list messages along with your regular email. If you subscribe to several different mailing lists, finding anything in your mailbox will be a tremendous task. Your best bet is to use your email software's filtering abilities to organize your mail for you. Just follow these easy steps:Create a mailbox or directory for each mailing list
Use the name of the mailing list as the name of the folder.
Create a filter or mail action that automatically moves email into their appropriate directories.
To make an effective filter for organizing your mailing list messages, you need to determine something that is part of every email you get from the mailing list which is unique to that mailing list. Usually, each piece of email from an electronic mailing list will contain the mailing list address in the From: field. You can set up a filter to look at the From: field to find the name of the list, and then move those messages into a mailbox for the list.
Most mailing lists will allow you to request a Journal.A journal is a single piece of email that contains all the messages received during a certain period. Instead of getting twenty or so individual messages from the mailing list, you get a single piece of email that contains the text of twenty messages.
A moderated mailing list might even include a table of contents for each journal as well as provide an index on the Internet to let you go back to and locate an earlier message that you later wish to review.
To see what services your mailing list offers, refer to that first piece of email you got from it. along with the rules of the mailing list will be information on how to request a variety of different documents from the mailing list. Here is an example of a journal of messages.
To cancel your subscription ("unsubscribe"), refer to that first message you received when you subscribed to the mailing list. This message contains instructions on how to cancel your subscription. Generally, you need to send an email message to a certain address saying that you want to cancel your subscription or "unsubscribe". The important things it to know the correct addresses and the correct format of the request.
Be sure to send your request to "unsubscribe" to the
proper address. Otherwise, your message will be posted to
the entire list. In addition to inconveniencing other
subscribers, your request will not be processed. Remember -
you are dealing with a piece of software, not a person!
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