E-mail Lists

What is an Electronic Mail List?

A mail list is something you subscribe to by sending a specially constructed e-mail request to the list's server (the listserv). Mail list subscriptions are almost always free, but if you ran across one that was not free then you would be asked for money in some form before you were subscribed. After you subscribe to one you will get e-mail which is sent to every subscriber of the list.

The different types of mail lists

There are two general types of mail lists:

information services
discussion groups (moderated or unmoderated)

Information services are one-way lists. Like subscribing to a newletter that you get every so often by e-mail. Discussion groups are two-way lists. Any e-mail which is sent by any member of the list (that is, a subscriber) is reflected back to all members of the list. If the list is moderated then there is a person who screens the e-mail that is sent to see if it is appropriate for all to see before it is broadcast to the list. In unmoderated lists the members themselves are expected to be respectful of the purpose of the list and its members.

How does one subscribe to a mail list?

This varies and you must be told exactly how to subscribe to any given mail list. You will send e-mail to a list server which usually has an e-mail address beginning with majordomo, listproc, or listserv. Usually you leave the subject field blank and enter a single line in the body beginning with subscribe and followed by the listname (and your user name if told to do so). If your e-mailer automatically attaches a "signature" to the end of e-mail that you send, then you should turn that feature off before sending a subscription request. Since the list server who receives and responds to this e-mail subscription request is not a person, you must do exactly as asked in typing up your request. You will get a subscription confirmation by e-mail.

What are the subscriber's responsibilities?

keep your subscription confirmation message which contains important information about the list.
keep track of what lists you belong to (some are not very active so you can forget).
check and delete mail received from a mail list so that it does not pile up and fill up your account.
be respectful of everyone on the list since what you post is being sent to all members for some types of listservs.
if someone posts a question to the list, the replies should usually go to everyone (not just the questioner) since others may be curious about the answer.
always have a short descriptive subject title when sending email to the list for others to see (but not when you are subscribing or sending email to majordomo)

Maillists at Graceland

Management of mail lists at Graceland is handled by sending commands (such as subscribe, unsubscribe, help, or info) to majordomo@graceland.edu. By convention, all of Graceland's mail lists end with dash and the letter L, for List, e.g., lamoni-l, compsci-l, cpsc1100-l, etc. You simply send e-mail to majordomo with no subject and only one or more commands in the body of the message (ending with END command if you want). The following commands will cause majordomo to reply with information about the purpose of three different mail lists (if they exist), a list of all members of cpsc1100-l, and a list of all lists that johndoe is a member of. Some restrictions may have been placed on some commands or some lists, so they may not always work as you would hope. For instance, if you are not johndoe, you may not be able to do the which command as shown.

   info cpsc1100-l
   info compsci-l
   info lamoni-l
   who cpsc1100-l
   which johndoe
   end

If you want to get the full load of commands that are possible, just send a message to majordomo@graceland.edu with the following in the body of the message:

   help
   end