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Mail Lists

Most of us are familiar with web search services, but it is a bit harder to find relevant discussion list groups. If you are interested in discussion lists, you may want to bookmark the Liszt site, which exists for the purpose of putting you in touch with one of the over 70,000 (!!) discussion lists it now covers. You can search for the list you want by keyword, or by subject menu.

http://www.liszt.com/

Lists make it easy for a group of people to have discussions via e-mail. Instead of each of you having to send the mail message to each of the people who want to have the discussion, you send the message to an e-mail address that identifies the list. The message is then redistributed (called "exploded") to everyone who subscribes to the list. Reading a list, then, is a matter of reading your e-mail.

Once set up, the listserv can distribute e-mail with very little human intervention. The only tasks for the list owner are handling basic list maintenance (such as answering questions from new users) and acting on error messages generated by the list's users/subscribers.

Each list has an associated owner(s). The owner "manages" his/her list via e-mail. Owners can add/remove subscribers, edit the information and welcome files associated with the list, etc. In addition, owners can moderate lists and receive various error messages related to them. If a list is owner-moderated, all mail posted to the list will be sent to the owner for approval. If a list is closed-subscription, all subscription requests must be approved by the owner.


Listserv Terms

list-- an e-mail address you use for sending messages to the list's subscribers. Messages sent to the list are redistributed to people who subscribe to it. Lists that originate from NC State will have addresses in the form: listname@listserv.ncsu.edu.

listserv -- software that controls a list. To subscribe to a list, people send e-mail to the listerv program, not the list. The person who maintains a list also sends maintenance commands to listserv. All commands and requests for NC State lists are sent listserv@listserv.ncsu.edu (you can also use the mail alias listserv@ncsu.edu).

listserver -- the generic name for various types of software that operate lists

list owner -- person who maintains a list (a list can have more than one owner, but one person must be designated as the primary owner)

subscriber -- a person who receives a list's messages

moderator -- a person to whom a list's messages are sent for clearance before being sent to the list's subscribers. All lists must have a list owner, but moderators are optional.

post -- another name for sending e-mail messages to a list.

archive -- electronic storage of posts. Subscribers can get former postings for some lists

digest -- a file compilation of messages sent to a list. For some lists (those that are "digestible"), subscribers can get periodic digests instead of individual messages.


Essentials: Joining or leaving a list

People usually join a list by sending a message to the listserv software (never to the list itself). For example, if Jane Doe wants to join a public list called Forum, she would send subscribe forum jane doe as the body of her mail message to listserv@ncsu.edu (the e-mail address for the listserv software controlling the Forum list). If she wants to unsubscribe from the Forum list, she would send unsubscribe forum to the same listserv address. If the list is closed or private, the request will be forwarded to list owner for approval. Not all listserv programs use the same commands, but the general method of subscribing is similar for most, if not all of them.


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Established: May 1995 Last Modified: April 17, 1998 
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