Chapter 3: ListServs - Discussion Groups for Everyone

ListsServs or mailing lists are special kinds of electronic mail addresses that automatically forward discussions on a particular topic to your e-mail account. Listservs allow you to join a discussion group and and converse with more than one person at a time.. There are over 71,000 mailing list available on the Internet covering topics from K-12 education to Star Trek the Next Generation.

3.1 Subscribing to a Discussion group

1) To subscribe to a mailing list, you need to send an e-mail message to the LISTSERV. This is a computer that controls, sorts and distributes the messages.

a) Use QVTNET or other program to connect to the mail server.

b) For the TO: address, be sure to include the entire address:

TO: listserv@listserv.net

[This address will work for most ListServs, but some may use a different address]

c) Leave the SUBJECT: blank.

d) For your message, type

subscribe discussiongroup your name

i.e.

subscribe cruise-l Wayne Summers

e) Send the message

2) After a period of time (a few seconds to a few days), you will receive a confirmation message that looks like:

From: MX%"COMMUNET‑Request@uvmvm.uvm.edu" 19‑OCT‑1994 12:34:26.00

To: WSUMMERS

Subj: You are now subscribed to the COMMUNET list

Your subscription to the COMMUNET list (Communet: Community and Civic Network Discussion List) has been accepted.Please save this message for future reference, ...To send a message to all the people currently subscribed to the list, just sendmail to COMMUNET@UVMVM.UVM.EDU. This is called "sending mail to the list",because you send mail to a single address and LISTSERV makes copies for all the people who have subscribed. This address (COMMUNET@UVMVM.UVM.EDU) is also called the "list address". You must never try to send any command to that address, as it would be distributed to all the people who have subscribed. All commands must be sent to the "LISTSERV address", LISTSERV@UVMVM.BITNET (orLISTSERV@UVMVM.UVM.EDU). It is very important to understand the difference between the two, but fortunately it is not complicated. The LISTSERV address is like a FAX number, and the list address is like a normal phone line. If you make your FAX call someone's regular phone number by mistake, it will be an unpleasant experience for him but you will probably be excused the first time.If you do it regularly, however, he will probably get upset and send you a nasty complaint. It is the same with mailing lists, with the difference that you are calling hundreds or thousands of people at the same time, so a lot morepeople get annoyed if you use the wrong number.You may leave the list at any time by sending a "SIGNOFF COMMUNET" command to LISTSERV@UVMVM.BITNET (or LISTSERV@UVMVM.UVM.EDU) ....

3) To find a ListServ to subscribe to you can:

i) Many are listed in books like The Internet Yellow Pages and other Internet books.

ii)Use a web browser to find look in: http://tile.net or http://www.liszt.com/

iii) Send an e-mail to listserv@bitnic.educom.com and type list global in the message.

[note: This is a very large file and should be deleted after its use or saved to your floppy disk]

4) To send a message to everyone who subscribes to the discussion group, you e-mail to the discussion group name at the address indicated in the confirmation (see #2 above). You can also reply to the discussion group using reply in the mail program. Remember that everyone in the discussion group will read your message, so be careful what you say and how you say it.

5) To remove yourself from a discussion group, you need to unsubscribe The instructions for how to do this are included in the confirmation message, so it is very important to save it. This message is not sent to the list, but rather to the ListServ which is the address you used for subscribing (see #2 above).

6) It is possible with most lists to place your subscription on "hold" when you are on vacation. The procedure for doing this is usually included in the confirmation message.

7) It is very important that you read your e-mail regularly if you are subscribing to a discussion group. There are days when I will receive 20-30 messages from two or three discussion groups. Once you have read a message, either delete it or save it to your floppy disk. Otherwise your disk space will fill up and you won't be able to receive or send e-mail until some of your files are deleted. If you are no longer interested in a discussion group, unsubscribe (see #5). If you are going to be away from the computer for several days, you should put a "hold" on your messages. This is especially important at the end of a semester.

3.2 Discussion Groups

There are thousands of discussion groups that you can join. I subscribe to about seven. Some are very busy like Novell (a network system) and Berita-L (Malaysian news). Others like Virus-L distribute a digest or collection of the messages received about once a week. Some like SIGTEL-L (Special Interest Group on Telecommunications) and PSACT-L (Problem Solving Discussion Group) are very inactive and I only receive a few messages a month. Listed in the appendix are a few suggested discussion groups that you might find interesting. Some are very active and some are not. Try subscribing to a couple, but remember to delete the messages when you are finished reading the message and unsubscribe when you are finished with the discussion group. Do not forget to save the confirmation message so that you can unsubscribe later.