A Mailing List

Sending all your friends individual e-mail with the same

text is a major problem. You’ll soon start wondering where all those 500 hours of

your VSNL account have gone. Using the bulk mailing facilities some mail clients give you

(or sending a cc to each person) is foolhardy, leaving every person on this list with

their e-mail ID in plain view, a bonanza for the spammer who gets hold of such a list. You

and everyone else on this kind of a list are likely to have your mailboxes deluged with

junk mail advertising everything from unbelievable discounts on software products to magic

drugs which beat Viagra hollow.

The best solution is to set up a mailing list. Any message

sent to a common e-mail address (say mylist@listprovider.com)

is automatically sent to all members of the mailing list "MyList".

There are many kinds of mailing lists.



Announcement lists: These are used to distribute information about a product, a
service, an event, or other noteworthy information. In most cases, the organization that

runs the mailing list controls what information is sent out. If you join such a list, you

can’t post to it, only receive messages posted by the list manager. Keith

Dawson’s TBTF <www.tbtf.com>,

Microsoft’s SBNWire <www.microsoft.com/sbnmember/default.asp>

and Website Journal <www.websitejournal.com>

are excellent examples of such a list.

Open discussion lists:

Anyone who is a member of the

mailing list can submit information to be distributed to the entire group. Such lists are

interactive groups for several like-minded people to share information on topics of common

interest. Anyone who is a member of the

mailing list can submit information to be distributed to the entire group. Such lists are

interactive groups for several like-minded people to share information on topics of common

interest.

Moderated forums/discussion groups:

These combine

the best features of the two types above. In such lists, members of the group can submit

information to be distributed to the entire group. However, all messages are first routed

through the list manager, who can forward it to the mailing list at his discretion. These combine

the best features of the two types above. In such lists, members of the group can submit

information to be distributed to the entire group. However, all messages are first routed

through the list manager, who can forward it to the mailing list at his discretion.

List servers

List servers like Lyris < href="http://www.lyris.com">www.lyris.com> can also be used to create

auto-responders. These are e-mail "robots" which reply to incoming e-mail with a

specific document. For instance, sending info@company.com

will send back a reply with a brief thank you note, along with a corporate profile and

other essential data about the company.

Even a year ago, setting up and maintaining such a list was

next to impossible for the common man, requiring as it did the necessity of delving into

the mystic world of list servers. These are difficult to set up and maintain and

commercial list providers will generally charge you an arm and a leg.

Some of the most popular mailing list servers include:

ListServ by Eric Thomas–now produced by Lsoft < href="http://www.lsoft.com">www.lsoft.com>

Listproc from CREN (Corporation for Research and Educational

Networking)

Brent Chapman’s Majordomo

Some other popular list servers are Lyris < href="http://www.lyris.com">www.lyris.com> and MajorDomo (a list server for the

Macintosh)

All this has changed now, thanks to several free Web-based

mailing list providers. These now offer several advantages over the old mailing list

servers, including:

A simple Web-based interface for managing the list.

Ready-made forms for joining the list which, you can put up

on your Website.

List archives (all messages posted on the list) on the Web

indexed by name, date, and frequency of posting.

Easy, automated subscribing and unsubscribing facilities for

list members.

Anti spam filters to ensure that spamming can be minimized

and easily blocked.



... and many more.

Setting up a free e-mail list is now

ridiculously easy. Just point your browser at one of these sites for more details.



EGroups–www.egroups.com, ListBot– href="http://www.listbot.com">www.listbot.com, WebSite Post Office– href="http://www.websitepostoffice.com">www.websitepostoffice.com.

All these and other free list providers in return place a

discreet ad or two at the bottom of every message posted to the list.

Setting up a mailing list

To set up a mailing list on ListServ,

ListProc, or MajorDomo, just contact the system administrator, who will set up the list for you.

Setting up a Web-based list like eGroups or ListBot is a breeze–as easy as filling

out a form which asks for your name, your e-mail, and postal addresses. You then specify a

name for your list and a password for you to identify yourself as the list owner on later

visits. If the list name is mylist, a list <mylist@egroups.com>

will be created for you. You then fill in another form, which sets policies for your

list–things like:

can post to this list

can read list archives on the Net.



.....and others

These policies are essential for your running a good list,

and the form usually has the default values displayed. These default values are generally

the best settings for a well-regulated mail list. Too tight a control on the list (say

specifying that all posts have to be routed through you) can be a major problem,

especially when the traffic on the list starts becoming something like twenty messages a

day. Too loose a hold on your list (setting "all can post to this list") renders

your list a haven for spammers, who can then gleefully latch onto your list and flood it

with junk mail.

Now, let’s get down to brass tacks. Just what do you really

do to set up a mailing list?

Set a topic

This can be anything—a club newsletter, a daily set of

jokes, etc. One such list is QuizNet ( href="http://www.angelfire.com/or/masthana/quiznet.html">www.angelfire.com/or/masthana/quiznet.html)—a

large list which, reaches Indian quizzers around the world. Remember, the only criterion

is that sufficient people must be interested enough to join your list and actively

participate in it.

Get some members

This is not as easy as it sounds, because most people have

a rooted objection to wasting precious Internet time on something they feel doesn’t

interest them. So, ask your friends if they are interested in joining such a list.

Remember, eGroups and other similar providers do offer you the facility of adding a whole

lot of e-mail addresses to your list. However, netiquette (net + etiquette, by the way)

demands that you first ask a person before you subscribe him to a mailing list and start

bombarding him with unsolicited messages.

Plan some content

A mailing list will soon die a natural death if the list

topic is not something all members are genuinely interested in. Your list will survive if

and only if it’s participative, with members frequently posting to the list and

getting replies or feedback from the others on the list.

Lay down some basic ground rules

This is necessary to avoid clogging up each member’s

inbox (including yours) with a load of junk mail. (Refer "Miss Manners on the

Net" in this issue).

In conclusion, let me repeat: getting a mailing list of

your own is quite easy but demands considerable personal attention from you.