Instructors
Thierry Nabeth (Thierry.NABETH AT insead.edu)
Claudia Roda (croda AT aup.fr)

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By subscribing to a mailing list you can exchange messages with a group of people who share your interest on a certain subject.

By subscribing to a mailing list you can exchange messages with a group of people who share your interest on a certain subject. Once you have subscribed to a mailing list you will receive all messages posted directly into your email box. You may simply lurk or you may reply to messages and initiate new conversations.

Mailing lists are normally maintained by computer programs which receive submitted messages, deliver them to the list subscribers, generate and maintain archives, accept new subscriptions, etc. List managers (these are real people) only keep an eye on what happens and intervene if necessary.

 

Mailing lists policies:

• Some mailing list will only send messages to you.
• Some mailing list will accept messages through the filter of a moderator who decides whether messages submitted to the mailing list will be posted or not.
• Some mailing list will post all messages submitted: unmoderated mailing lists.
• Some mailing list can be joined by anyone whilst others are restricted only to certain users.

To subscribe to a mailing list you need to send a message to the computer that manages the mailing (listserv) list so you need to know:

• the email address of the listserv
• and the command to send (e.g. subscribe in the Subject: field)

You will tipically receive a reply with a welcome messages within 24 hours (sometimes within a few minutes).

The command that you will need to specify depends on the software that manages the mailing list - see the list of references below.

Once you have subscribed it is a good idea to lurk for a while.

Eventually you may want to send a message to the mailing list. In this case you need to know the email address of the mailing list. Note that for unmoderated lists this address is always a different address than the listserv address. You will be informed of this address in the welcome message you will receive when you join.

When you do not want to be on the mailing list anymore you will have to send a message to the listserv. The content of this message will also be specified in the welcome message (e.g. unsubscribe in the Subject: field).

When you subscribe to a mailing list always keep the welcome message for future reference. It is a good idea to have a folder where you keep all the welcome messages from mailing lists you subscribe.

If you foresee not to check your email for some time (e.g. you go on holidays) you should remember to suspend or unsubscribe all the mailing list you have joined otherwise your mail box will get clogged with messages.

Mailing lists normally allow commands for:

• subscribe and unsubscribe
• get list of commands for the list (help)
• suspend
• obtain list of subscribers

To find out which mailing lists exists - see the list of references below.

Mailing lists normally maintain archives containing all messages which have been posted in the list. These archives are often searchable by subject, date and authors of messages.

If you cannot keep up with all the messages you receive from a mailing list:

• Check if your mailing list offers a digest (messages are grouped and sent to you once every so often or once every so many messages or lines of messages)
• Use an email filter. Some email clients (e.g. Eudora, Elm) have built-in filters which allow to discard selected messages, redirect selected messages to a folder, etc. These filters are often used to avoid spamming.
• Suspend or unsubscribe the mailing list.

 

Useful links Two places where you can find lists of mailing lists: Catalist, the catalog of LISTSERV lists, and at tile.net/lists General information about Internet Discussion Groups by Ernest Ackermann Internet Mailing Lists: Guides and Resources