Vinod Scaria
VirtualMed, Calicut

 

Discussion Groups and Mailing Lists are perhaps the oldest and the most effectively used collaboration tools available on the Internet. Being with a bunch of individuals having same interests and sharing thoughts is perhaps the most inspiring and motivating moments you spend online, and that is perhaps one single reason that Discussion Groups and Lists have not tarnished with time and tide.

 

A mailing list is nothing but a collection of e-mail Ids of individuals related by their common interest in a particular topic. Discussion groups have in addition a web interface which allows people to collaborate by accessing the website of that particular group. In practice, most of the groups have both interfaces, thus allowing interaction via e-mail and via the web interface.

In fact many of the e-mail softwares like MS Outlook, Eudora etc have options to create and maintain a mailing list. One could send a mail to the list and the mail gets distributed to all the e-mails listed. This has the disadvantage that it is totally centralized and others cannot interact with the group in your absence.

Listservs and Discussion groups emerged to circumvent this problem. The server maintains the collection of e-mail Ids and any message send to the server automatically gets distributed to its members. Many of this groups are moderated[means there is a human being who takes care of the messages and looks into the relevance of the messages posted~ like a gatekeeper], while others are unmoderated and driven automatically by softwares.

 

Many of the lists/groups have a WebPages and more often an archive of messages. Any good search engine like Google or Yahoo can be used to ferret information on these lists. Since educational institutions maintain many of the lists, a visit to institutional websites may be of immense value.

The most successful way to get to know about the lists is to visit catalogues of lists maintained at different websites. Lizst [http://www.lizst.org] is an excellent catalogue. Catalist [http://www.lsoft.com/lists/listref.html] maintains an exhaustive list of all mailing lists using the Listserv software. Another major catalogue is the Yahoo Groups [http://www.groups.yahoo.com]. These catalogues allow you to search for keywords related to your topic and get to know more on lists related to your field of interest.Google Groups http://www.groups.google.com lets you post and read comments in usenet discussion forums.

 

Softwares maintain mailing lists. Listserv, Sympa etc- are some of the most popular ones. Listserv is perhaps the most popular of these, and is free to download from the internet- which perhaps explains its popularity.

Since softwares maintain these lists, they can understand only commands. Commands may vary from software to software, but the Listserv commands are regarded as the Gold standard, as they are the most popularly used ones. Here are some of the commands.

 

Function or Task	Command
To subscribe to the list	subscribe LISTNAME YOURNAME
To unsubscribe from the list	signoff LISTNAME
To obtain the list of the subscribers to the list	review LISTNAME
To see the list of the lists managed by the listserver	lists
To receive help in English	help

It 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is important to note that a list generally has 2 e-mail Ids –One for administration [ie, to post commands and the other to post messages]

The commands are to be posted ONLY to the former and messages to the latter.

 

 

Websites like Yahoo maintains discussion groups which have both  web and e-mail interfaces. The commands are a bit different from the listserv commands .

Post message:	LISTNAME@yahoogroups.com
Subscribe:	LISTNAME-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe:	LISTNAME-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
List owner:	LISTNAME-owner@yahoogroups.com

 

 

Etiquette on the internet [dubbed ‘Netiquette’] is valued and demanded on these groups. This explains why these unmoderated lists still remain in business. The rule of the thumb is to refrain from posting obscene remarks, name-calling and advertising. Always stick to the topic. Respect the other’s privacy and yours will be respected.

Anybody can start a group on his own. For an amateur, Yahoo Groups is perhaps the best bet. Its web based interface lets you create a group, that too for free. You can indeed customize your web interface, and also change the security options.

Many institutions allow you to create lists on their servers. All you need is a software and some space. Contact your server administrator regarding the availability of space and software. The software often comes with a manual that les you customize the look and feel of the list.

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