Mailing Lists

A mailing list is a list of people's e-mail addresses.

The list has its own address. Anything that gets sent to the mailing list is sent to every one on the mailing list.

People often respond to these messages, and so a running conversation develops.

Different lists have different topics.

They may stick closely to the topic or permit tangential discussions.

 

There are three main categories of mailing lists:

Discussion: Every person on the list can post a message. These generate very wide discussions.

Moderated: Each message is reviewed before it is sent, to stop redundancy.

Announcement Only: Only the moderator can send messages.

 

To Subscribe to a Mailing List

Send a mail message to the address for subscribing to the mailing list, NOT to the mailing list itself. This is the address of the list manager and is usually -request@.

It may take a few days before your request is processed.

 

To Cancel Your Subscription

Send a mail message to the address for subscribing to the mailing list, NOT to the mailing list itself. This is the address of the list manager and is usually -request@.

It may take a few days before your request is processed.

 

Sending Messages to Mailing Lists

Wait for a week or so before you send any messages. Read the mail you get sent from the mailing list. Become familiar with the sort of messages that appear from the list. Then send your message to the list address.

Some lists will encourage you to send in a message about yourself, some won't.

 

Replying to Mailing List Messages

When you write a reply to a list message, you need to decide if you want the reply to go to the person who generated the message only, or to everyone on the list.

The To field of your reply will be automatically filled in by the mailing lit software. Check the address and see if it is going to the person who generated the message or the whole mailing list. If you don't want to send your message to this address (you want to send your reply to the person who generated the message, your reply to field is set to the mailing list or vice versa) then change it.

Check the Subject field (also filled in by the computer) and change if necessary.

Send your message.

 

Finding Lists

There are lots of mailing lists on the Internet. For a complete list of lists, see a mailing list directory like Http://www.liszt.com