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MAP05: LISTSERVS


     "I have made this letter longer than usual, only because
      I have not had the time to make it shorter." -- Blaise
      Pascal, Provincial Letters


Last Friday, I showed you how to use the LISTSERV file server
to retrieve archived files. Today, I am going to some new things
about LISTSERV, including what LISTSERV was originally designed
for -- mailing lists (like the one that distributed this letter
to you).

Remember, though, that today's lesson only covers LISTSERV lists.
In fact, this lesson is an elementary lesson for ordinary
LISTSERV users like you and me. Tomorrow's lesson will be a
highly technical lesson for LISTSERV (and other mailing list
servers) gurus-to-be.

What is a LISTSERV mailing list? Quite simply, it is a list
maintained by a LISTSERV program of a whole bunch of people
who share similar interests. Anyone can subscribe to a
list by sending a SUBSCRIBE command (remember those?) to
the LISTSERV address. Any e-mail letter sent to the list's
address is copied and mass-mailed to the e-mail box of every
person subscribed to the list. Everyone else on the list can
then reply to that letter, and then ... well, you get the picture.

LISTSERV lists give you a way to have open discussions with
dozens (or even hundreds) of people on a myriad of topics.
Best of all, it is all done through e-mail!

I want to say something about the difference between
list addresses and LISTSERV addresses. Let's pretend that I
create a list here at the University of Alabama for the
open discussion of power line-chomping squirrels. I'll
even call the list "SQUIRREL".

The address for our pretend squirrel discussion list would be
[e-mail] (or [e-mail]). Any e-mail
letter sent to the [e-mail] address would be
copied and mass-mailed to every single person subscribed to
the squirrel list. That's simple enough.

But how are people going to subscribe to my squirrel list? We need
a second address just to handle all of the commands for the list!
That second address is the LISTSERV address (which, in this
case, is [e-mail]).

Are you starting to see the picture?

The list address is the address you send something to if you
want it to be distributed to everyone else subscribed to the
list. The LISTSERV address is the address you send all of your
commands to.

What would happen if you sent a command (like SUBSCRIBE or GET)
to the discussion list's address instead of to the LISTSERV's
address? Simple -- your command would be treated like a letter
and would be sent to everyone on the list (how embarrassing!).

Remember this (and you will see this on a pop quiz sometime):

    -  Send your LETTERS to the list address!
    -  Send your COMMANDS to the LISTSERV address!

Now, life would be a whole bunch easier if the only LISTSERV in
the world was at the University of Alabama. But, it isn't. There
are thousands of different LISTSERVs around the world, and
there are literally tens of thousands of different LISTSERV lists.

How are you ever going to find out what different discussion
lists are out there, and what these lists' addresses are?
Well, there are a couple of ways to do this:

     1. Word of mouth -- someone tells you about a hot new
        list you need to check out.

     2. Internet Yellow Pages -- there are some GREAT books
        you can buy in most bookstores that tell you where
        all of the neat stuff is on the Internet (as a matter
        of fact, Osborne/McGraw-Hill has given me permission
        to quote from their "Internet Yellow Pages" later on
        in this workshop!!).

     3. The LIST GLOBAL or LIST GLOBAL / STRING command -- we'll
        talk about this tomorrow.

     4. Announcements on other lists.

How are you ever going to figure out which LISTSERV address
goes with which discussion list? EASY! This trick only works
with LISTSERV discussion lists, but if you take the full address
of a discussion list (like [e-mail]) and replace
the discussion list's name with the word "LISTSERV", you'll
end up with the correct LISTSERV address for that particular
list (in this case, the correct LISTSERV address for the
squirrel list would be [e-mail]).

A few more examples:

     List address:              LISTSERV address:

     [e-mail]       [e-mail]
     [e-mail]       [e-mail]
     [e-mail]        [e-mail]
     [e-mail]       [e-mail]

Why is this important to know? Well, let's say that I tell you
that there is a LISTSERV list called [e-mail] that
you really need to subscribe to. All I have given you is the list's
address. Remember, you can only send LETTERS to the list address
You need the LISTSERV address in order to subscribe!

With this trick, you automatically know that the LISTSERV address
for [e-mail] is [e-mail] and you
can subscribe to the list without any problem!

You may notice that some list addresses look something like this:

     CRUISE-L@UNLVM    MAPTEST@UA1VM     NAVIGATE@UBVM

Those are BITNET addresses. To turn these addresses into something
that you can use, you'll have to add .BITNET to the end of the addresses:

     [e-mail]  [e-mail]  [e-mail]

and the LISTSERV addresses would be:

     [e-mail]  [e-mail]  [e-mail]

One nice thing about this is that you can almost always tell that
a list is a LISTSERV list by looking at the list's address. If
the address is LIST@NODE or [e-mail], you can all but bet
that the list is a LISTSERV list.

Some of you may be at sites that do not allow mail to Bitnet addresses.
You can bypass this restriction by taking the address

          [e-mail]

dropping the .BITNET, so the address becomes

          LIST@NODE

changing the @ to a %, so the address becomes

          LIST%NODE

and then adding @CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU to the end, so that the final
address becomes

          [e-mail]

Now let's talk about some new LISTSERV commands. You already
know the SUBSCRIBE command

     SUBSCRIBE listname <your full name>

and the GET command

     GET filename filetype F=MAIL

I want to show you a couple of other commands that will make your
life a whole lot easier (remember, all commands must be sent to
a LISTSERV address).

If you ever need to unsubscribe from a list, the UNSUBSCRIBE command
will take care of everything. There are three different UNSUBSCRIBE
commands that you can use:

     UNSUBSCRIBE listname          -- to unsubscribe from a particular
                                      list (you need to replace the
                                      word "listname" with the name
                                      of a the list you are dropping)
     UNSUBSCRIBE *                 -- to unsubscribe from every list
                                      at a particular Listserv address
     UNSUBSCRIBE GLOBAL            -- to unsubscribe from every LISTSERV
                                      list on the planet

Have you ever accidentally thrown away an e-mail letter? Well,
if that letter was from a LISTSERV list and if that list keeps
an archive, you can retrieve that letter from the LISTSERV!
Here is how to do it:

     1. Send an INDEX listname F=MAIL command to the LISTSERV address
        (for example, to get the index for the squirrel list,
        your command would say INDEX SQUIRREL F=MAIL).

     2. Look through the index to find the file or notebook that
        you want to retrieve (the index will even tell you the
        filename and filetypes for each of the files!!).

     3. Use the GET filename filetype F=MAIL command to get the
        file or notebook that you want.

Remember: you send LETTERS to the list address; you send
COMMANDS to the LISTSERV address. Etch this into your brain :)

There are a couple more things I want to talk about, but I'll
save them until tomorrow :)

REVIEW:

     - LISTSERV lists are (usually) discussion lists that are
       (usually) open to any who wants to subscribe

     - You subscribe to a LISTSERV list using the SUBSCRIBE
       LISTNAME <YOUR FULL NAME> command

     - Letters are sent to the list address, commands to the
       LISTSERV address.

     - You find new lists through word of mouth, Internet Yellow
       Pages (and other books), the LIST GLOBAL and LIST GLOBAL /
       STRING command, and announcements on other lists.

     - The LISTSERV address can be found by replacing the
       listname in the address with the word LISTSERV
       (listname@address ---> LISTSERV@address). This only
       works with LISTSERV addresses, though.

     - You need to change addresses like list@node to
       [e-mail] before you can use the address.

     - Bitnet addresses can be converted to Internet addresses
       by changing the [e-mail] address to
       [e-mail]

     - To unsubscribe from a list, use the UNSUBSCRIBE,
       UNSUBSCRIBE *, or UNSUBSCRIBE GLOBAL command (remember
       that all commands must be sent to the LISTSERV address).

     - To receive a list of all of the files that you can
       get from a particular LISTSERV list, use the INDEX
       LISTNAME command. You can then use the GET FILENAME
       FILETYPE F=MAIL command to get the files that you
       want.

     - You send letters to the list address, commands to the
       LISTSERV address.


HOMEWORK:

This homework assignment is completely optional. Also, you are
reminded to contact your local Internet service provider if you
have questions about, or difficulties with, any part of the Roadmap
workshop (please do not write me -- my mailer can't handle the
volume).

Finally, please remember that replying to this letter with your
GET commands will *NOT* work. You *MUST* write a new letter to
the LISTSERV address for your GET commands to work.

1)   If you would like an in-depth guide to LISTSERV, GET the
     file LSVGUIDE MEMO from the LISTSERV file server at
     [e-mail] (note that this is *NOT* on the
     University of Alabama's LISTSERV file server).

2)   If you would like a very brief guide to LISTSERV, GET the
     file LISTSERV REFCARD from the LISTSERV file server
     at the University of Alabama. This is a list of a whole bunch
     of LISTSERV commands, along with a brief explanation of what
     each command does.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

     The November/December issue of Internet World magazine has
     a wonderful article on LISTSERV by Karl Signell. The magazine
     is available at most newsstands.


   PATRICK DOUGLAS CRISPEN    THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS LETTER DO NOT
    [e-mail]      NECESSARILY REPRESENT THE VIEWS OF THE
  THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA      UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA - TUSCALOOSA

      ROADMAP: COPYRIGHT PATRICK CRISPEN 1994. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.