What is a mailing list?
How to get on one

Make the Internet come to your in-box by participating in mailing lists.

What is a mailing list?

A mailing list is a free discussion group or news service conducted via e-mail, covering a vast richness of topics -- you name it, there's a mailing group for it. The discussion mailing lists are conducted as strings of e-mail messages in which a note from one participant is automatically sent to everyone else on that list.

How to get on a mailing list

There are a few Web sites containing directories of discussion mailing lists. One of the most popular is the Liszt Searchable Directory of E-mail Discussions at www.liszt.com while another is the Neosoft Mailing List Directory at www.neosoft.com/internet/paml. 

You can also have a comprehensive index delivered to your e-mail box as a text file (albeit a huge one!) by sending an e-mail to listserv@bitnet.educom.edu. Leave the subject line empty and in the body of the message type only the following: list global.

Be warned: an active mailing list will result in dozens of messages each day!

Mailing lists can also be used to distribute e-mail items like online magazines or newspapers on a daily or weekly basis. Subscribing to these is a similar process to joining a regular mailing list.

By David Flynn