An electronic mailing list is a special usage of email Electronic mail, most commonly abbreviated email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages. E-mail systems are based on a store-and-forward model in which e-mail server computer systems accept, forward, deliver and store messages on behalf of users, who only need to connect to the e-mail infrastructure, typically an e-mail server, with that allows for widespread distribution of information to many Internet The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet Protocol Suite to serve billions of users worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope that are linked by a broad array of electronic and users. It is similar to a traditional mailing list A mailing list is a collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients. The term is often extended to include the people subscribed to such a list, so the group of subscribers is referred to as "the mailing list", or simply "the list" — a list of names and addresses — as might be kept by an organization for sending publications to its members or customers, but typically refers to four things: a list of email addresses, the people ("subscribers") receiving mail at those addresses, the publications (e-mail messages) sent to those addresses, and a reflector, which is a single e-mail address that, when designated as the recipient of a message, will send a copy of that message to all of the subscribers.

How automated electronic mailing lists work

Electronic mailing lists are usually fully or partially automated through the use of special mailing list software Computer software, or just software, is the collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions telling a computer what to do. The term was coined to contrast to the old term hardware . In contrast to hardware, software is intangible, meaning it "cannot be touched". Software is also sometimes used in a more and a reflector address that are set up on a server In computing, a server is any combination of hardware or software designed to provide services to clients. When used alone, the term typically refers to a computer which may be running a server operating system, but is also used to refer to any software or dedicated hardware capable of providing services capable of receiving email. Incoming messages sent to the reflector address are processed by the software, and, depending on their content, are acted upon internally (in the case of messages containing commands directed at the software itself) or are distributed to all e-mail addresses subscribed to the mailing list. Depending on the software, additional addresses may be set up for the purpose of sending commands.

Many electronic mailing list servers have a special email address in which subscribers (or those that want to be subscribers) can send commands to the server to perform such tasks as subscribing and unsubscribing, temporarily halting the sending of messages to them, or changing available preferences. The common format for sending these commands is to send an email that contains simply the command followed by the name of the electronic mailing list the command pertains to. Examples: subscribe anylist or subscribe anylist John Doe. Some list servers also allow people to subscribe, unsubscribe, change preferences, etc. via a website.

Electronic mailing list servers can be set to forward messages to subscribers of a particular mailing list either individually as they are received by the list server or in digest form in which all messages received on a particular day by the list server are combined into one email that is sent once per day to subscribers. Some mailing lists allow individual subscribers to decide how they prefer to receive messages from the list server (individual or digest).

Types of mailing lists

One type of electronic mailing list is an announcement list, which is used primarily as a one-way conduit of information and can only be "posted to" by selected people. This may also be referred to by the term newsletter. Newsletter and promotional emailing lists are employed in various sectors as parts of direct marketing Direct marketing is a form of advertising that reaches its audience without using traditional formal channels of advertising, such as TV, newspapers or radio. Businesses communicate straight to the consumer with advertising techniques such as fliers, catalogue distribution, promotional letters, and street advertising campaigns.

Another type of electronic mailing list is a discussion list, in which any subscriber may post. On a discussion list, a subscriber uses the mailing list to send messages to all the other subscribers, who may answer in similar fashion. Thus, actual discussion and information exchanges can happen. Mailing lists of this type are usually topic-oriented (for example, politics, scientific discussion, joke contests), and the topic can range from extremely narrow to "whatever you think could interest us". In this they are similar to Usenet Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980. Users read and post public messages to one or more categories, known as newsgroups. Usenet resembles bulletin board systems (BBS) in most respects, and is the precursor to the various Internet forums that are widely used today; newsgroups A usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from many users in different locations. The term may be confusing to some, because it is usually a discussion group. Newsgroups are technically distinct from, but functionally similar to, discussion forums on the World Wide Web. Newsreader software is used to, and share the same aversion to off-topic A contribution is on-topic if it is within the bounds of the current discussion and off-topic if not. The terms are normally used in the context of mailing lists, discussion groups, discussion forums, bulletin boards, newsgroups, and wikis messages. The term discussion group A discussion group is an online forum for individuals to discuss various topics amongst each other. People add their comments by posting a block of text to the group. Others can then comment and respond. In the early days of the Internet, USENET was the most popular type of discussion group, but now discussions mostly take place over the World encompasses both these types of lists and newsgroups.

On both discussion lists and newsletter lists precautions are taken to avoid spamming Spam is the use of electronic messaging systems to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately. While the most widely recognized form of spam is e-mail spam, the term is applied to similar abuses in other media: instant messaging spam, Usenet newsgroup spam, Web search engine spam, spam in blogs, wiki spam, online classified ads spam, mobile. Discussion lists often require every message to be approved by a moderator before being sent to the rest of the subscribers, and companies sending out promotional newsletters work with whitelist A whitelist or approved list is a list or register of entities that, for one reason or another, are being provided a particular privilege, service, mobility, access or recognition. As a verb, to whitelist can mean to authorize access or grant membership. Conversely, a blacklist is a list or compilation that identifies entities that are denied, mail distributors, which agree to standards and high fines from ISPs should any of the opt-in subscribers complain. In exchange for their compliance and agreement to prohibitive fines, the emails sent by whitelisted companies are not blocked by Spam Filters Email filtering is the processing of e-mail to organize it according to specified criteria. Most often this refers to the automatic processing of incoming messages, but the term also applies to the intervention of human intelligence in addition to anti-spam techniques, and to outgoing emails as well as those being received, which can often reroute these legitimate, non-spam emails^[1].

Some mailing lists are open to anyone who wants to join them, while others require an approval from the list owner before one can join. Joining a mailing list is called "subscribing" and leaving a list is called "unsubscribing".

Archives

A mailing list archive is a collection of past messages from one or more electronic mailing lists. Such archives often include searching and indexing functionality. Many archives are directly associated with the mailing list, but some organizations like Gmane collect archives from multiple mailing lists hosted at different organizations - thus, one message sent to one popular mailing list can end up in many different archives. Gmane had archives of over 9000 mailing lists as of 16 January 2007. Some popular free software Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with minimal restrictions only to ensure that further recipients can also do these things and that manufacturers of consumer- programs for collecting mailing list archives are Hypermail and MHonArc.

See also

• Mailing list A mailing list is a collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients. The term is often extended to include the people subscribed to such a list, so the group of subscribers is referred to as "the mailing list", or simply "the list"
• Netiquette Netiquette is a set of social conventions that facilitate interaction over networks, ranging from Usenet and mailing lists to blogs and forums. These rules were described in IETF RFC 1855. However, like many Internet phenomena, the concept and its application remain in a state of flux, and vary from community to community. The points most strongly
• Online consultation
• phplist
• Dada Mail
• GNU Mailman
• LISTSERV LISTSERV was the first electronic mailing list software application, consisting of a set of email addresses for a group in which the sender can send one email and it will reach a variety of people. Since its launch in 1986, several other list management tools have been developed, such as Lyris ListManager in 1997, Sympa in 1997, GNU Mailman in 1998 email list management software
• Majordomo (software) Majordomo is a mailing list manager developed by Brent Chapman of Great Circle Associates. It is written in Perl and works in conjunction with sendmail on UNIX and related operating systems. In Latin, "majori domo" means "for/to the majority"
• ezmlm
• squeeze page
• Sympa Sympa is an open source mailing list management (MLM) software. Its name, which is an acronym for Systeme de Multi-Postage Automatique (i.e. Automatic Mailing System), also means "nice" in French
• Google Groups Google Groups is a service from Google that supports discussion groups, including many Usenet newsgroups, based on common interests. Membership in Google Groups is free of charge and many groups are anonymous. Users can find discussion groups related to their interests and participate in threaded conversations, either through a web interface or by
• Yahoo! Groups Yahoo! Groups is one of the world’s largest collections of online discussion boards. The term Groups refers to an Internet communication tool which is a hybrid between an electronic mailing list and a threaded Internet forum. Group messages can be posted and read by e-mail or on the Group homepage, like a web forum. Members can choose whether to
• MSN Groups MSN Groups was a website part of the MSN network which hosts online communities, which can contain pages, host images, and contain a message board. MSN Groups was shut down on February 21, 2009 as part of a migration of online applications and services to the Windows Live brand, but Windows Live Groups is not a de facto replacement for MSN Groups
• Email marketing software Email marketing software refers to a computer application which provides the ability to send bulk email to target audiences. The intent is usually to send newsletters or promotional materials to opt-in lists of subscribers, although the software can be used to send unsolicited email. The software typically includes a database that stores contact

References

1. ^ Article about what a Whitelist is and what it means to users. What is a "Whitelist" and why do I want to work with a "Whitelisted" Mail Distributor?

External links

• Discussion_groups article at LISWiki, a Library and information science Library science is an interdisciplinary field that applies the practices, perspectives, and tools of management, information technology, education, and other areas to libraries; the collection, organization, preservation, and dissemination of information resources; and the political economy of information. The first school for library science was wiki Wikis may exist to serve a specific purpose, and in such cases, users use their editorial rights to remove material that is considered "off topic." Such is the case of the collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia. In contrast, open purpose wikis accept content without firm rules as to how the content should be organized
• Mailing List Management Packages.

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