Center for Rural Studies		UVM Extension Service
207 Morrill Hall		RR 4, Box 2298
University of Vermont		Comstock Road (Berlin)
Burlington, VT 05405-0106		Montpelier, VT 05602-8927
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This week we will learn about some tricks for using discussion lists.   We will cover:

• What's a Listserv?
• Commands vs. Letters
• List Etiquette
• Finding Lists
• WWW access to Lists
• Other hints

What's a discussion list or a LISTSERV?

First off, what is a LISTSERV? Well, a LISTSERV is a mailing list program designed to copy and distribute electronic mail to everyone subscribed to a particular mailing list. We will talk much more about LISTSERVs and LISTSERV commands next week, but for now let's say that LISTSERVs work on a concept called "mail explosion." A single piece of e-mail is sent to a central address (the LISTSERVs address), and the LISTSERV then "explodes" the letter by duplicating that single letter and sending one copy of it to every single person subscribed to a particular mailing list (1). This "mail explosion" concept is what allows me to communicate with all of you by sending just one e-mail letter to a central address.

For example, this course is being distributed by a discussion list.

Remember when you subscribed to the TOCP_TRAINING list? You sent an e-mail letter to LISTSERV@LIST.UVM.EDU that said

SUBSCRIBE TOCP_TRAINING YOURFIRSTNAME YOURLASTNAME

in the body of your letter.

That address, listserv@list.uvm.edu doesn't actually go to any person.  It goes to a computer with a software program that is listening for mail.  If it gets mail with a command, it does something.  In this case, subscribes you to a list, and sends you back some mail to confirm that you have subscribed.

Actually, there are several different software products that serve discussion lists.  If you come across listproc@email.address, or majordomo@email.address you will be working with a different discussion list software.  AND these other list types will use different commands.  So- be aware of what software you are working with!

If you want more information about all the commands that are available to you, you can review the help file, which can be emailed to you, or viewed via the Web. See http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/1.8d/user/user.html for the Listserv commands on the Web, or DO the homework!

I'd like to take a moment to be sure you understand the difference between sending commands to the listserv software, and sending letters to all the recipients.

Sending Listserv commands vs. Sending letters

Let's pretend that I create a list here at the University of Vermont for the open discussion of power line-chomping squirrels. I'll even call the list "SQUIRREL". The address for our pretend squirrel discussion list would be SQUIRREL@LIST.UVM.EDU. Any e-mail letter sent to the SQUIRREL@LIST.UVM.EDU address would be copied and mass-mailed to every single person subscribed to the squirrel list. That's simple enough.

But how are people going to subscribe to my squirrel list? We need a second address just to handle all of the commands for the list! That second address is the LISTSERV address (which, in this case, is LISTSERV@LIST.UVM.EDU). Are you starting to see the picture? The list address is the address you send something to if you want it to be distributed to everyone else subscribed to the list. The LISTSERV address is the address you send all of your commands to.

What would happen if you sent a command (like SUBSCRIBE or GET) to the discussion list's address instead of to the LISTSERV's address? Simple -- your command would be treated like a letter and would be sent to everyone on the list (these things do happen, and this is a learning experience).

Remember this (and you will see this on a pop quiz sometime.....
- Send your LETTERS to the list address!
- Send your COMMANDS to the LISTSERV address!

And this leads us to some etiquette issues when using lists.....

List Etiquette

Beyond keeping track of what commands you are sending where, there are some guidelines to be considered when using email discussion lists.

• Spend a little time 'Lurking' or observing the nature of a discussion on a list.
• If there is a document describing the purpose of the list, read it.  Often called a FAQ, it will be found at a website or sent by email to you when you subscribe, or it can be requested from the Listserv software with a command.
• Post messages that are appropriate for the list.
• Be polite in your language and resist responding angrily to something right away.  Let your response sit for a bit before you send it out.  Remember, comments can be taken in the wrong way without the context or body language to accompany it.
• Post messages and information that are true and accurate.  Ie. don't just assume a virus warning is true, or any other information that you may be passing along.  Check it out before you forward it.
• Use descriptive subject lines.  Lack of subject lines waste people's time.
• If replying, snip out the parts of the message that are not relevant to your comments or reply.
• Important! Reply to the whole list if it is something that the whole list needs to see.  Otherwise, it is a waste of people's time, and you may be sharing things that you don't want to with the whole list.  CHECK the TO: line on the message!  Send mail back to the original poster via their personal email address, not the list address.

Now, how do you find lists to subscribe to that might interest you?

Finding Discussion lists

Now, life would be a whole bunch easier if the only LISTSERV in the world was at the University of Vermont. But, it isn't. There are thousands of different LISTSERVs around the world, and there are literally tens of thousands of different LISTSERV lists.
How are you ever going to find out what different discussion lists are out there, and what these lists' addresses are? Well, there are a couple of ways to do this:

1. Word of mouth -- someone tells you about a hot new list you need to check out.
2. Internet Yellow Pages -- there are some GREAT books you can buy in most bookstores that tell you where all of the neat stuff is on the Internet (as a matter of fact, Osborne/McGraw-Hill has given Patrick Crispen, the originator of these lessons, permission to quote from their "Internet Yellow Pages" later on in this workshop!!).
3. The LIST GLOBAL or LIST GLOBAL / STRING command -- we'll talk about this later.
4. Announcements on other lists.
5. Indexes of lists can be found on the World Wide Web, which we have not yet covered, but which I suspect many of you have used. One of the most comprehensive lists is found at:

Tilenet's index of lists: http://www.tile.net/tile/listserv/

Also, there's
Liszt Discussion Group Index: http://www.liszt.com/

The list of scholarly email discussion lists: http://n2h2.com/KOVACS/ .In addition to searching for lists on the WWW, in many cases it's possible to view the postings to the list via the WWW.

WWW access to Listservs

Some list processors allow people to view the lists and post through a website. For example, if you have WWW access, you can see the MUNINET (the list that was developed for VT municipal officials) list archives. Go to http://list.uvm.edu.  There you will see a menu, and one of the options is to view the Archives of a list.  Click here, scroll to the MUNINET list, and click on the link.  Voila, all the postings to the list since the beginning.

In addition to viewing the archives, it's possible to post messages to a list via the web.  Click on a discussion list to view, and at the top is a choice to post messages to the list.  This requires that you logon, and in order to do this, you need to register a password.  If  you want, try this, but it's extra.

Other helpful ideas and commands:

One command is very helpful in working with lists:

SET listname DIGEST

This command will set the list to send you only one message a day from the list, instead of all the messages sent to the list each day.  That will reduce the amount of mail you get, and is helpful for dealing with busy lists.

Also - you may have noticed that I tend to type my LISTSERV commands in all capital letters. This is a habit that I developed to keep me from confusing the letter "l" and the number "1."

The good news is that LISTSERV is "case-insensitive," so you are more than welcome to type your GET commands in all capital letters, all lower case letters, or even a mixture of both! For example, each of the following SET commands will be equally as successful:

SET LISTNAME DIGEST

SET listname digest

set listname DIGEST