USING EMAIL LISTS

Email lists

Perhaps we should say there are 2 kinds of email list. The first is part of most email programs 'address book' capability. You can put all your, say, family, or sports club members in a clump. Then when you want to send an email to everyone, instead of addressing it to each person individually you just say To: Myfamily (or whatever is the name of the clump or list of addresses). Ranui Webmail doesnt have this feature yet.

The other main kind of email list though, is where message despatching is handled by a central 'listserver' computer, so that each message that is sent to the list gets sent to all members on that list. These suit bigger numbers of people and are set up to discuss interest areas, like beekeeping or quilting, or for work or other collaberative projects (almost like an on-line meeting).
Each person is responsible for getting on or off this type of 'e-list' or 'e-group'.

Such community-of -interest email lists are home to discussions to and fro, by people all over the world on a certain discussion subtopics or 'threads'. On a few lists 'posts' or contributed messages are 'moderated' or edited by an editor to keep the discussion relevant. But in essence email list are like magazines, and, like real magazines they contain the absolute up to date knowledge about anything and everything. Only later will that information end in books or websites.

One note of caution is that 'traffic' on some lists can be heavy. You have to learn to press the delete key to survive on such lists, skimming subject lines for things that interest you, and ditching anything that doesnt.

Here are few places where you can find some email lists to join.
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Subscribing

If you are lucky there will be webpage form you can fill out, which is the easiest way of getting onto an email list. Failing that you may have to send an email with special instructions like "to subscibe send an email to listname-requests@domain.org with the word subscribe in the body of the email". Many people find this approach a little daunting, but if you follow the instructions it should work out ok.

In either case you will most likley be required to confirm your email address. This is done by the listserver computer hosting the list sending you an email which you have to reply to (just clic reply) or click a link in that email. When your address is confirmed, thats usually it done, except if someone needs to approve your membership.

Unsubscribing is the same in reverse. Make sure you file or print out the 'welcome' email the listserver sends you, because it has information about how to subscribe. With a little patience and luck you wont get stuck on a 3 dozen messages a day list for ever!

Posting

You will be sent the address to send posts to in your welcome email. It will something like listname@domain.org . Sending emails to most lists is not something you do lightly, because as many several thousand people may get it. It is essential to just 'lurk' and soak in the culture of the group, read the list archives if they have them for a while. Many lists have a frequently asked question page (FAQ) which contains information for 'newbies'.

Here are some guidelines for posting and good communication over and above the ones on the basic email help page:
- Do NOT send list administrative items (like unsubscribe me!) to the list. if in doubt about the list-requests address email the moderator or 'owner' of the list. Its a plain text medium so do not send attachments or pretty formatted (HTML) email.

- Have regard to the stated list purpose, and only send clearly on-topic messages to the list. Check out any departures first.

- Avoid 'cross posting' where at all possible that is sending the same info to many lists. Instead if the material is truly on topic post a link to the archive of the original thread, where these are open.

- Pay super attention to good subject lines. If you are replying to a message but are changing the subject of the conversation, change the subject line too! Each message shold be on one topic. Good subject lines mean that others will be able to find your valuable contributions in the list archive at a later date. If the subject topic changes, change the subject line! If you feel that the thread topic hasn't changed but the original subject line is unhelpful use "Re:New subject [was: Old subject]" protocol. This joins threads in the archive. A subject line "Re:[list] Digest volume 1.222.3" is basically useless.

- On the personal level try to use 'I statements' and avoid attacking participants ('flaming'). If something provokes you instead of saying "you are stupid", say "I don't believe that" or "that annoys me".

- Clearly acknowledge the source of any quote or file sent. Try to avoid quoting material or providing references that are anonymous or have no reference to the primary source, eg full URL (use http://) or name, author, year, and page number of book or journal etc. Be mindful that copyright laws apply to material passed through email. If it already exists on the web, as a rule avoid republishing material by email. Instead provide the link, or quote segments only.

-Quoting previous author is helful as mentioned but don't reproduce (quote reply) an entire, large message in your response just to add a line or two of commentary. Avoid altering quoted reply material. Where you need to add context, do this sensitively with square brackets and [...] or [snip] etc. Clearly identify who has said what. Only ever quote or repost 'offlist' correspondence with the permission of the original author.

A email list of your own?

If you want to set up an email list of your own, thats not too difficult. There used to be quite a range of choices for free global list type providers like e-groups and one-list but They all pretty much got gobbled up by Yahoo Groups. Ever since that time Yahoo groups has deteriated got slower and slower, more and more advertsing, and some problems getting onto lists. Having said that once its going and you set the list prefs to no HTML it runs quite well.

YahooGroups is at http://groups.yahoo.com/ . Other possibilites in the southern hemishpere , if you are willing to pay a small fee are: http://www.case.org.au/ , http://lists.cat.org.au/ , http://mc2.vicnet.net.au/ .

MC2 is a web based type alternative which may work for you. You may also find that Ranui Webspaces works for you, its also web based but has an email feature too. We are working on setting up a NZ based community listserv in the near future.