E-mail discussion lists
E-mail discussion lists
E-mail discussion groups provide a very convenient way of sharing information, ideas, worries, etc., with a large group of people who have related interests. There are tens of thousands e-mail discussion groups.
The basic principle of an e-mail discussion group is that a host computer (server) maintains a list of subscribers to a discussion. Every time a subscriber sends an e-mail message to the list, that message is automatically sent back out to all the other subscribers. You use regular e-mail both to send commands to the server, and to post messages to the list's subscribers.
Each discussion group, or list, is identified by a list name and by the address of the computer which hosts it. All interactions are via e-mail. List-server software on the host computer manages an e-mail mailing list for each group. You send e-mail to the list-server programme itself to subscribe to one of its discussion groups, to find out who else has subscribed, etc. The e-mail message consists of standard commands, one command per line. There are 3 main list-server programmes in use: Listserv, Listproc and Majordomo, each with its own set of commands.
For some groups your subscription request will be handled automatically, for others the list owner may screen it. Once you have subscribed to a group, you can actually send a message to all the subscribers by sending e-mail to the name of the group. You will automatically receive messages from other subscribers via e-mail.
As an example, for the Medical Students Forum group, the e-mail addresses would be:
LISTSERV@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
MEDFORUM@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Commands are sent to a list server by sending an e-mail message with the commands as the body of the message. It doesn't matter what you specify for the subject line.
It is very important that such commands be sent to the address
for the list server software (e.g., listserv@company.com)
and not to the list name itself (e.g., topic@company.com).
Commands sent to the list itself won't work, and will irritate a
lot of people since every list subscriber sees them.
The most common list-server programme is called Listserv. Its available commands include -
HELP Get brief help
INFO REFCARD Get complete help
LIST GLOBAL Get a list of lists
REV listname Get a list of users
INDEX listname Get an index of available files
SUB listname firstname lastname Subscribe
SENDME filename filetype Send a file
QUERY listname Query your distribution options
SIGNOFF listname Unsubscribe
There are also SEARCH and RETRIEVE commands that are rather
messy to use.
Other list-server software will have different commands available.
To post a message to a Listserv list, simply send e-mail to the list address using the list name as a user name.
For example, to post a message to everyone who subscribes to
the medstu-l list,
which is located at unm.edu, send e-mail
to medstu-l@unm.edu.
To post a reply to a message that you receive from the list, just do a normal reply. Double-check the address(es) that it will be sent to: the whole list, the original individual sender, others, ...
Scan the list archives, or subscribe for a while, before posting messages.
Make sure you specify a subject line which concisely describes the contents of your message.
There are also Web sites which handle the subscription and message-posting tasks, hiding the details.
Various Web sites maintain lists of lists to help you find lists on particular topics. This list of lists of lists is from Johns Hopkins but the order is different and the comments are mine.
