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Why Use Mailing Lists?

Do-It-Yourself Lists

Automated Lists

Putting it on the Web

List Hosting

Additional E-Mail List Resources

Why Use Mailing Lists?

For many of us, E-mail is the most useful feature of the Internet. Among its advantages compared to conventional mail, fax, or phone communications: speed, convenience, low cost, and ease of distribution.

By using E-mail mailing lists you can disseminate news, create and participate in ongoing discussions, and help people build an on-line community that connects people with each other and with your organization. But using E-mail can also create some problems – spam (junk E-mail), poor communications and misunderstandings, and just plain information overload. The purpose of this Web page is to provide some basic information on effective use of E-mail lists.

Do-It-Yourself Lists

If all you want to do is send out messages to a group of recipients, creating your own mailing list within the E-mail program that resides on your computer (also called an E-mail "client) is an easy way to start. Nearly all E-mail clients allow you to create address "groups" which include multiple individual addressees. If I make frequent mailings to the same group of people – the Pine Tree Folk School Board, for instance – I can create a "PTFS Board" entry in my address book that includes all of their names. I only need to select one address, the PTFS Board, to send a message to many people.

The advantages of this approach: it's simple, it's free, and it's all on your own computer, so you have total control over it. The disadvantages: you have to do all the work of adding and removing names and keeping addresses updated. This may be manageable if the list isn't too big. Another potential disadvantage of this type of list is that it only works for announcements, not discussions, since only the keeper of the list can communicate with all the list members.

Automated Lists

If you want to generate on-line discussions among list members, or if you just don't want all the work of managing the subscriber names and addresses, then you'll probably want to set up an automated list (also called a "listerver list", or a "listserv"). In this type of list, a software program does the list management for you. This program doesn't run on your computer – it is on a server computer with a permanent Internet connection. There are a number of mailing list software packages – Majordomo, Listserv, ListProc, and Lyris are among the more common ones.

All listservers have two general characteristics:

List members can join and leave the list on their own, at any time.

Any member of the list can distribute a message to every other list member by sending a single E-mail to a central address (for discussion lists).

Listserver lists can be configured in different ways. Some of the options are:

Announcement vs. discussion. In an announcement list, only one or a few people can send messages to the list. In a discussion list, all list members can do this. There are Internet announcement lists with more than 100,000 members, far too many for any sort of discussion.

Open vs. private. In an open list, anyone who signs up as a subscriber is automatically added to the list. Private lists require that potential subscribers be approved by a list administrator before they can join the list.

Moderated vs. unmoderated. Messages sent by list members to an unmoderated list are sent directly to list members. If the list is moderated, all messages are forwarded to a list moderator, who approves them (and possibly edits them) before sending them on to the list.

Also, many listservers allow subscribers to choose to receive each day's list messages as a single daily digest. Regardless of which particular software package or hosting service your list uses, here are some basic considerations:

List administration tasks. Someone will need to set up the list, approve subscribers (if that is how the list is configured), deal with bad E-mail addresses, and other housekeeping details.

Moderator role. The list administrator and the moderator are often the same person, but they don't have to be. While the administrator deals with the nuts and bolts of list operation, the moderator's job is to keep the list discussion going and on track. S/he will need to keep feeding issues, information, and discussion topics to the list, especially when the list is first getting started. The moderator also should gently remind and instruct list members in good list "netiquette" (see below). Finally, the moderator needs to have the authority to remove anyone from the list who insists on violating the lists Acceptable Use Policy (see below).

Netiquette. "Netiquette" refers to the set of manners and customs that make it easier for us all to get along on mailing lists and in newsgroups. While most of it is common courtesy, there are some aspects of using mailing lists that are peculiar to this medium. For more about list netiquette, see this site's Mailing List FAQ's page.

Acceptable Use Policy. It is a good idea for any public list (one which anyone may join) to have a formal Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). AUP's inform list subscribers that by joining they agree not to engage, for example, in harassing other list members, or using the list for illegal or (in some cases) commercial purposes.

Critical mass. A mailing list has to have a certain minimum number of members in order to have good and frequent exchanges. On most lists, the majority of members will rarely, if ever, post their own messages, but will read the messages that others write. One very rough rule of thumb is that 50 - 100 members is a minimum size for an active discussion list.

Putting it on the Web

With the continuing evolution of the World Wide Web, many mailing lists are now integrated with Web sites. List users can access searchable archives of list postings, and manage their own accounts from a Web page, rather than by sending commands to a listserver by E-mail. This makes the lists much more user-friendly.

List Hosting

In setting up a list, one option is to check with your own ISP (Internet Service Provider) to see what services they can provide. That is the arrangement we have taken with our helpnet-list mailing list. helpnet-list is hosted by our ISP, MINT. MINT also set up the scripts which create the helpnet-list archives in this Web site.

There are also a number of free or inexpensive Web-based mailing list services that are easy to take advantage of. One caveat – these services generate most of their revenue from advertising sales, and the demographic information they gather about list users is worth money to them. Read their privacy policies carefully, and decide for yourself whether you are comfortable using them. Here are two services which I have used:

Topica provides free mailing lists (with no ads in the messages), and searchable list archives. It is easy to create and manage lists from the Topica Web site. Topica handles the mailing lists of IGC (the Institute for Global Communications), which sponsors LaborNet, PeaceNet, EcoNet, and other progressive Web services.

eGroups provides mailing lists, searchable archives, group calendars, and file posting and transfer areas. Lists are free if small (3-line) text ads are put into messages, or $4.95/month with no ads. Lists are easily created and managed from the eGroups Web site.

Additional E-Mail List Resources

Here's several useful resources for using mailing lists:

Mailing List FAQ's – basic and less basic questions and answers about using the helpnet-list and other mailing lists, including tips on list etiquette.

Roadmap96 – Patrick Douglas Crispen’s excellent syllabus on getting around the non-Web parts of the Internet. Lessons 2-8 deal with E-mail and mailing lists. It’s old stuff in Internet years, but it’s still a great way to get a basic understanding of what lists are all about.

Liszt, the Mailing List Directory – A searchable directory of 90,000+ Internet E-mail mailing lists.

PC Magazine “Getting the Word Out” – a February 4, 2000 review of 8 Web-based mailing list services. Oriented towards small businesses, but still useful information.

Pine Tree Folk School
RR 2, Box 7162
Carmel, ME 04419
207/848-2433
E-mail: info@ptfolkschool.org