ASME's Mechanical Engine…ing Toolkit 1997 December/ASME's Mechanical Engineering Toolkit 1997 December.iso/edu_comp/listserv.txt

Text File | 1993-05-31 | 10KB | 252 lines

     A LISTSERV is a limited-circulation mail-exploding program that
     runs on IBM mainframes and similar equipment.  LISTSERVes are
     started and administered by people (the "List owner") who have
     use of such machines .  However, anyone with USENET, BITNET or
     other Internet access, on any kind of machine, may subscribe to
     them; you don't even need to have USENET access to participate
     in a LISTSERV - it works through e-mail.  There's usually no
     subscription cost.  Since LISTSERVes operate through the e-mail
     system, your local system administrator or sysop is not
     involved in, nor has control over,  your access to any specific
     LISTSERV - but the (remote) `list owner' is and does, since
     he runs the program that  sends each "installment" sent to you
     from the machine from which the mailing List is managed.

     Basically, the way they work is that messages sent to the
     mailing List by a participant get automatically copied and
     distributed to all participants.  Thus, postings are always
     addressed to ALL, though threading and quotations (and personal
     altercations!) are frequent.  In this way, one can distribute
     text messages or binary files (UUENCODEd into text format) to a
     preselected audience.  Depending on how a particular list was
     set up, postings to it may or may not require individual
     approval by the list owner before they are distributed to
     everyone.

     While LISTSERVes do not run on Unix systems, their output is
     often also distributed via USENET news.  Moreover, many
     LISTSERVes are duplicated by corresponding USENET newsgroups
     which mirror their postings; in these cases, the output is
     public and not addressed to any individual.  Unlike LISTSERVs,
     such `Newsgroup Lists' may be read anonymously, but postings on
     them are not anonymous.

     LISTSERVes may be used for storing and cataloging files as well
     as messages and are actually powerful file servers in addition
     to mailing-list managers.

     Some LISTSERV mailing Lists are private and are not advertised,
     or are known to only a limited group of participants or
     candidates.  Many academic specialties, for example, have their
     own, limited-circulation LISTSERVes. "Public" Lists such as
     those shown below may be subscribed to by anyone with e-mail
     access, at any time, simply by sending a short message to the
     LISTSERV's e-mail address.  Typically, your message would simply
     say: "SUBSCRIBE XXXXXX-L", where XXXXXX-L is the name of the
     mailing List you wish to join.  The LISTSERV program takes your
     name and address *from the header of your message* and uses
     them to send material to you until you unsubscribe.  It will
     acknowledge your subscription as a first step.  Once you've
     joined, you might wish to send it another message, saying:
     "INFO GENINTRO", which will get you some information on, and a
     general introduction to, the use of LISTSERVes.

     There is an e-mail address for each LISTSERV *program* itself
     and there's another e-mail address to which posts are sent to
     each *mailing List* that the LISTSERV program handles. Commands
     are sent to the LISTSERV address; postings are sent to the
     mailing List address; the latter's domain name is always
     ".BITNET".  The two addresses may look similar but are not
     identical!  Reversing them will result in hopeless mishmash.

     The system cannot be used for private e-mail, although command
     transactions between users and the program are not made public.
     As shown above, LISTSERVes interact with users via special
     commands sent to them through e-mail.  In this way, you can
     obtain a full list of fellow subscribers (except those who
     requested anonymity), or ask the LISTSERV program to send you
     instructions and help on how to use it, or request statistics
     about its mailing activities, or its file holdings at any time,
     etc.

     In IBM/BITNET fashion, LISTSERV commands and expressions are
     usually capitalized, although the system does recognize
     lower-case commands and names.  LISTSERV names are limited to
     eight characters.  Many having names of less than 8 chars end
     their name in "-L" (e.g., VIRUS-L, on computer viruses). Names
     with more than 8 chars become truncated.

     Follow some of the available LISTSERV mailing Lists known to
     me; there are many others. These names are taken from a Unix
     system, so they are shown as newsgroups under the "bit."
     category (bit=BITNET).  On other systems, and especially on
     BITNET systems, the full names would look different.


                                            Mark Sartori

                      -----------------------

bit.listserv.9370-l     About 9370 systems
bit.listserv.aaua-l
bit.listserv.advise-l
bit.listserv.aidsnews   News on AIDS
bit.listserv.aix-l      On the AIX system (IBM's version of UNIX)
bit.listserv.allmusic   On music of all kinds
bit.listserv.anthro-l   On anthropology
bit.listserv.apple2-l   On the Apple II system
bit.listserv.applicat
bit.listserv.asm370     On 370 assembly language
bit.listserv.big-lan    On large local-area networks
bit.listserv.billing    On billing..?
bit.listserv.biosph-l   Regarding the Biosphere
bit.listserv.bitnews    News on BITNET
bit.listserv.brfc-l
bit.listserv.c18-l
bit.listserv.c370-l     C language on 370
bit.listserv.candle-l   Not about candles..!
bit.listserv.christia   On Christianity
bit.listserv.cics-l
bit.listserv.cinema-l   On cinema
bit.listserv.cmspip-l
bit.listserv.commed     On commedy
bit.listserv.commodor   On Commodore computers
bit.listserv.confer-l
bit.listserv.confocal   On confocal optics
bit.listserv.cumrec-l
bit.listserv.cyber-l    On cybernetics
bit.listserv.db2-l
bit.listserv.dbase-l    On dBase
bit.listserv.disarm-l   On disarmament
bit.listserv.domain-l
bit.listserv.drp-l
bit.listserv.earntech
bit.listserv.economy    On the economy
bit.listserv.edi-l
bit.listserv.edpolyan
bit.listserv.edtech     On technical education
bit.listserv.edusig-l
bit.listserv.emflds-l
bit.listserv.emusic-l   On electronic music
bit.listserv.envbeh-l
bit.listserv.erl-l
bit.listserv.esl-l
bit.listserv.ethics-l   On ethics
bit.listserv.film-l     On films
bit.listserv.frac-l
bit.listserv.future-l
bit.listserv.games-l    On games
bit.listserv.gaynet     For gay people
bit.listserv.gddm-l
bit.listserv.geodesic   On geodesics?
bit.listserv.gerinet    A geriatric net..?
bit.listserv.gguide
bit.listserv.gis-l
bit.listserv.govdoc-l   Government documents..?
bit.listserv.gutnberg   Something to do with printing
bit.listserv.hellas     On Greece and Greeks
bit.listserv.helpnet    You can probably get some help here
bit.listserv.history    On history
bit.listserv.i-amiga    For Amiga fans
bit.listserv.ibm-hesc
bit.listserv.ibm-main   On IBM mainframes
bit.listserv.ibm-nets   On IBM mainframe networks
bit.listserv.ibm7171
bit.listserv.ibmtcp-l
bit.listserv.icu-l
bit.listserv.info-gcg
bit.listserv.infonets
bit.listserv.ioob-l
bit.listserv.isn
bit.listserv.jes2-l
bit.listserv.jnet-l
bit.listserv.l-hcap
bit.listserv.l-vmctr
bit.listserv.lawsch-l
bit.listserv.liaison    Don't know what kind.
bit.listserv.license    Software?
bit.listserv.linkfail
bit.listserv.literary   Literary.
bit.listserv.lstsrv-l   On LISTSERVes
bit.listserv.mail-l
bit.listserv.mailbook
bit.listserv.mba-l      For MBAs
bit.listserv.mbu-l      For MBUs..?
bit.listserv.medlib-l     Medical library?
bit.listserv.mednews    Medical news..?
bit.listserv.mexico-l   On Mexico
bit.listserv.ministry-l
bit.listserv.mon-l
bit.listserv.nazi-l     About Nazis
bit.listserv.netmon-l     Net monitor..?
bit.listserv.netnws-l   On Net news
bit.listserv.netscout
bit.listserv.new-list
bit.listserv.newsb-l
bit.listserv.next-l     On the Next system
bit.listserv.nodmgt-l   On node management
bit.listserv.notis-l
bit.listserv.novell     Re Novell OS
bit.listserv.omrscan
bit.listserv.online-l
bit.listserv.ozone      About the ozone layer
bit.listserv.pacs-l
bit.listserv.page-l
bit.listserv.pagemakr   On Pagemaker and DTP
bit.listserv.pmdf-l
bit.listserv.policy-l   On public policy
bit.listserv.politics   On politics
bit.listserv.power-l    On power (same thing )
bit.listserv.procom-l   Re Procom
bit.listserv.redist-l
bit.listserv.relusr-l
bit.listserv.rexxlist   On the REXX language
bit.listserv.rhetoric
bit.listserv.rscsmods
bit.listserv.rscsv2-l
bit.listserv.rustex-l
bit.listserv.s-comput
bit.listserv.sas-l      On the SAS statistical-analysis package
bit.listserv.saw-l
bit.listserv.script-l
bit.listserv.scuba-l    For scuba divers
bit.listserv.security   Re security
bit.listserv.servers    On servers
bit.listserv.simula     Some kind of simulation
bit.listserv.snamgt-l
bit.listserv.sos-data
bit.listserv.spires-l
bit.listserv.sportpsy   Sports psychology?
bit.listserv.spssx-l
bit.listserv.sqlinfo    On SQL
bit.listserv.stat-l     On statistics
bit.listserv.std-l
bit.listserv.tech-l
bit.listserv.test
bit.listserv.tex-l      On the TEX typesetting language
bit.listserv.tn3270-l   Something about 3270 systems
bit.listserv.trafic-l
bit.listserv.trans-l
bit.listserv.travel-l   On travel and travelers
bit.listserv.ucp-l
bit.listserv.ug-l
bit.listserv.urep-l
bit.listserv.usrdir-l
bit.listserv.valert-l   Virus alert mailing list
bit.listserv.vector-l
bit.listserv.vfort-l
bit.listserv.virus-l    Virus discussion list (equiv. to comp.virus)
bit.listserv.vm-util    Utilities for VM systems
bit.listserv.vmslsv-l   On VMS LISTSERVes?
bit.listserv.vmxa-l
bit.listserv.vnews-l
bit.listserv.win3-l     On Windows 3.x
bit.listserv.word-pc    ON MS Word
bit.listserv.wp50-l     On Word Perfect 5.0
bit.listserv.x400-l     On X400 nets
bit.listserv.xcult-l
bit.listserv.xedit-l    On the Xedit text editor
bit.listserv.xerox-l    Xerox mailing list
bit.listserv.xmailer