Join The Club

Everyone likes belonging to a special club or organization where you can freely discuss your favorite hobbies and activities. The Internet provides thousands of free virtual clubs available to anyone with online access and an email program to join. Here’s a WebNovice tutorial explaining what mailing lists are and how to join them.

Mailing lists have been around the Internet almost since it began. They’re a terrific way for people with a common interest to get together and exchange ideas and news. And, like newsgroups, there are mailing lists that cover just about any subject under the sun. Lists can be very formal or informal depending on the main topic. You can join (subscribe to) the list at any time and drop out at any time.

Mailing List Basics

One of the reasons you might have got hooked up to the Internet was the handy way of using email to keep in touch with friends and relatives. But, there’s another way you can use email to correspond with other people who have interests the same as you – mailing lists.

Basically, all mailing lists work the same way: Any messages sent to the list manager that are intended for the list members get delivered to every member on the list in their mailbox. When a member of the list logs onto the Internet with their email program, the list messages are delivered just like any other email. In other words, if you send a message to the list, everyone who is subscribed to receive messages from the list will get them. Pretty simple, huh?

In this short tutorial we’ll detail what tools you’ll need to participate in a mailing list, how you can find mailing lists that might interest you, and how to go about joining a list. We’ll also tell you about some of the rules and courtesies you’ll be expected to follow.

What You'll Need

Because mailing lists are conducted using email, joining and participating in a mailing list requires nothing more than your current email application. If you’re using any email program now to communicate with friends and relatives you’re all set up.

Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Communicator suites both contain a decent email client as part of the package. So, if you’re using these, they’ll work just fine for mailing lists. Members of America Online, Compuserve, MSN, and other national online services can use the email service they provide to enjoy mailing lists without any problems.

Lists Of Lists

Finding a list that may interest you is easy thanks to the World Wide Web. Several sites exist that categorize mailing lists into subjects and/or topics, but one of the best places to find a mailing list is the Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists Web page. Here you’ll find a database of composed and updated monthly by Stephanie de Silva.

Even though this site contains basic information about thousands of mailing lists it’s easy to navigate and find what you’re looking for. You can make use the site’s search feature to look for mailing list topics, or browse the entire catalog.

The site’s collection of mailing lists is arranged alphabetically by subject. Simply scan the subject index and click on a topic you may be interested in. Another page will open with mailing list titles that cover the topic. Clicking on the list title will give you a brief description of the list and the instructions for subscribing. Follow the instructions to subscribe and you’ll start receiving the list’s messages.

Newsletters And Other One-Way Lists

There is a specialized kind of mailing list where the communication is one way. You, as a subscriber, can’t contribute – you can only read it. Mailing lists such as this are perfect for newsletters, journals, and underground publications because interested parties can get informative news and information without all the costs involved in distributing conventional issues of a publication.

Many Web sites provide this service to their regular readers. A good example is C|net. You can subscribe to their free mailing list by filling out a form on their Web site and get daily news updates delivered whenever you log on to the ‘Net to retrieve your email.

Moderated - Unmoderated Lists

Generally, you will run into two types of lists – moderated and unmoderated.

A moderated list is managed by an individual who examines the messages before they’re distributed to the group. The moderator’s goal is not so much censorship, but to weed out messages that are not relevant to the subject. Moderated mailing lists contain considerably less noise. (Noise can be defined as irrelevant babble.) Depending on the editing capabilities of the list moderator, some of these are of very high caliber.

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 cull through the many messages. Unmoderated lists, however, can suffer from messages being sent to the group that sometimes wander outside the subject being discussed.

Digests

Frequently, a very busy mailing list will also have a digest available for members to request instead of the regular list. A digest is the compilation of all the messages that are received to the group sent out in one document. For those who prefer not to be bothered with a bunch of email messages on a daily basis should consider subscribing to the digest if one is available. You’ll get the same messages. They’ll just be packed into one email message instead of a bunch of little, individual ones.

Administration

For mailing lists to work there needs to be some sort of way to distribute the messages. One way is to have an individual manually send out the list traffic. Another, and the most common, is to have a computer manage the list.

Because a human being is actually in charge of a manually administered list it usually takes a bit more time to get subscribed to the list and to get messages sent out. (Human beings do have something called a life.) Lists maintained by a computer, however, can respond very rapidly to your requests.

Automated lists are controlled by one of three popular software applications: listserv, listproc and majordomo. Differences in the way these programs handle mailing list management is not applicable to this tutorial. (Technical details can be very dull.) What is important, though, is how you go about posting your messages to the different systems.

Subscribing To A List

Manually administered list are more forgiving when you request a subscription because a person actually reads your request to join. However, there is a standard format you need to follow so that the person governing the list knows what you want him/her to do.

To subscribe to this type of list, you send your request via an email message directly to the person administrating it. In the Send To box of your email program you type the email address of the administrator. In the Subject box type the words "subscribe to mailing list". And finally, in the message pane type "subscribe yourfisrtname yourlastname", replacing yourfirstname with Your First Name and, yourlastname with Your Last Name. You can also add a short note on why you want to subscribe to the list, any experiences you may have with the subject, or anything else you may want to tell the administrator.

As an example, suppose you are interested in learning more about Microsoft’s Windows NT and would like to join a mailing list that is devoted to this subject. The Advanced Systems User Group of Washington DC happens to conduct an unmoderated list about Windows NT that you may want to join. (This is a real mailing list.) Here’s how you would subscribe to this list:

TO: nt-users-REQ@jskay-consulting.com
SUBJECT: subscribe to mailing list
MESSAGE: join nt-users

Subscribing to an automated list is similar. Just keep in mind that in this instance you’re sending your request to a machine and the command to subscribe to the list must be exact.

To subscribe to a list maintained by the popular listserv management program use the following format:

TO: listserv@domain
SUBJECT: Leave this line blank. A machine is running this list and doesn’t care.
MESSAGE: sub listname yourfirstname yourlastname

In the example above, replace listname with the name of the mailing list, yourfirstname with your first name, and yourlastname with your last name.

Subscribing to majordomo and listproc managed lists is similar.

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 a safe place for later reference. The message will contain valuable information for unsubscribing should you find out later it isn’t what you expected. It also contains the email address you use to send messages to the group. This address is different than the address you used to subscribe to the list, so pay particular attention to it. 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 crowd.

Here are a few other suggestions for mailing list etiquette:

• Be polite.
• Read the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) file if the list has one. This will tell you more about the list and what questions have already been discussed.
• When sending a message to the group, try to make the SUBJECT line meaningful to other readers.
• Pay attention to where your sending your messages. Most mailing lists have more than one address and it’s easy to confuse the email address you use to send messages to the group with the email address you send to the 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. Double check your address before you hit the SEND button.
• It’s tempting to subscribe to mailing lists for every subject you might be interested in. Try to hold back and only subscribe to a few at first. Your email mailbox can quickly become overloaded with messages – especially if you hit on some of the more popular and active lists.