Central Baptist Church

Learning Community Class - Winter 1997

The On Line Church

Mailing Lists

What are Mailing Lists?

Mailing lists are e-mail based discussions on specific topics to which you can subscribe. Subscribers automatically receive all mail sent to the group and can reply. Many mailing lists offer a Digest option which bundles all e-mail from one day into a single e-mail message.

Mailing lists are run by programs usually called Listservs. You subscribe by e-mailing the Listserv with subscription instructions. You also send e-mail to the Listserv to change settings about your subscription (such as to request a digest version). Not all mailing lists use Listserv, but most do. There are also e-mail lists run by majordomo, listproc and others.

What Kinds of Mailing Lists Are There?

There are public and private mailing lists. For example, we could create a mailing list at CBC which would be a closed mailing list - open only to CBC members/friends. Many mailing lists relate to academic pursuits or hobbies. I subscribe to

• several Microsoft lists related to Internet programming
• ESA's mailing list
• Antony Dugdale's DIFTX-L
• a Risk Managment group
• CASNet - mailing list of the Casualty Actuarial Society
• Sam Phillips and Nanci Griffith (musicians) lists
• Sports Backhaul list where people post satellite locations of "in the clear" sports backhauls

Personally I like Newsgroups better than Mailing lists. I find it easier to find what I am looking for in Usenet. However, the mailing lists I subscribe to are not represented adequately on Usenet.

How do I find a list?

• Liszt is a searchable directory of discussion lists - search by phrase or by category
• The List of Lists is another searchable directory of discussion lists
• List of Publically Accessible Mailing Lists organized by Name and Subject
• Tile.net List of Listservs is searchable and has lists by category, name and sponsoring organization

Remember no list of list has everything. Keep you eyes open as you read publications from organizations you have an interest in. Chances are they sponsor a mailing list and will tell you how to subscribe.

Subscribing To E-mail Lists

For administrative requests about a list (like getting added or deleted, asking about archive files, etc.) you write to the address listed under "Subscription Address" NOT the "List Address". This gets you to the list owner or an automated list processor, rather than to the membership of the entire mailing list.

The command should be placed in the BODY of the message to the subscription address. Most automated list servers will send back an explanation of the correct command structure if you happen to get it wrong in your request.

Warning: before you subscribe read about the list and make sure it is a public forum.

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