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Mailing Lists
What is a Mailing List?
A mailing list is simply a group communication tool that uses e-mail. It
can be used for news, group discussion, file sharing, etc. The beauty of a
mailing list is that sending an e-mail message to a single address will
automatically distribute it to all subscribers.
Tips and Etiquette
In case you are unfamiliar with mailing lists, here are some tips for using
them efficiently:
- Because a mailing list is e-mail based, discussion can be done in near-real
time, or you can participate once a day or once a week, whenever you
normally read e-mail. It's up to you and your e-mail habits!
- When replying, include enough of the previous message to give some
context, without necessarily including the whole thing. Some way to mark
the quoted material is useful; this is often done by prefixing each line
with a > sign. Your mail program should do this for you automatically.
- Often, replies get sent to the mailing list by default, which facilitates
discussion. However, it can be embarrassing if you meant to make a side
comment to one person and instead everyone sees it. Check the To: field of
your message before pressing Send!
- Sometimes there may be lots of discussion going on, and the number of
messages in your Inbox can be a bit overwhelming. It may help to turn on
Digest mode, so that you only get one or two messages a day. It may also be
useful to have all of the messages from this list filtered automatically
into a special folder, if your e-mail program has that ability.
- Because you don't know what e-mail programs the various subscribers may
use, it's best to stick with straight text and avoid fancy formatting. Your
program may allow you to turn on and off HTML (web-style) formatting; turn
it off for messages to mailing lists if possible.
How to Subscribe, and Other Commands
The following commands will work for any list at Root Central.
In each case, replace <listname> with the actual list name.
- To subscribe to the list, send a mail message to
maiser@rootcentral.org, placing the following two lines in the body of
the message:
SUBSCRIBE <listname>
EXIT
- To send mail to the list for all the subscribers to read, send it to
<listname>@rootcentral.org
- To see who is currently subscribed to the list, send a mail message to
maiser@rootcentral.org, placing the following two lines in the body of
the message:
REVIEW <listname>
EXIT
- To receive your messages as "digests" (occasional messages containing all
the mail received for the list over a period of time) send a mail message
to maiser@rootcentral.org, placing the following two lines in the body of
the message:
SET <listname> DIGEST
EXIT
- To stop receiving mail from the list for "x" days, send a mail message
to maiser@rootcentral.org, placing the following two lines in the body
of the message:
SET <listname> VACATION x
EXIT
Naturally, you should change the "x" to the proper number of days. The
list server will automatically re-enable your subscription at the end of
the period.
- To unsubscribe from the list permanently, send a mail message to
maiser@rootcentral.org, placing the following two lines in the
message body:
UNSUBSCRIBE <listname>
EXIT
For all the commands shown above, please ensure that the commands start
hard against the left-hand margin of your mail message - do not indent
them (they are indented as shown above simply for clarity). It doesn't
matter if you use capitals or lower case.
Available Lists
Current mailing lists at Root Central:
Family News (list name is "family")
If your mail program supports hyperlinks, you can use the following links
to generate the proper commands for this list:
Table 151 (list name is "table151")
If your mail program supports hyperlinks, you can use the following links
to generate the proper commands for this list:
Other Lists
Other mailing lists will be created on request. If you have a need to set
one up, contact the postmaster.
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