What exactly is an internet mailing list, anyway?
“Internet lists” (sometimes known as “listservs” or “list servers”) are handy for sharing information/interacting with others regarding a specific topic of common interest. When you “subscribe” to an internet list on a particular topic, your email address is added to the list of addresses of all other subscribers to that list. When any member of the list sends a message to the list, everyone on the list receives the message. You may then reply to the message to the list, or to the individual who sent the message, as appropriate. There are different types of lists. Without getting into to much detail, I’ll point out a few of the variations. • List server software (LISTPROC, LISTSERV, MAJORDOMO, etc.) There are various programs which maintain internet lists, some of the most common being LISTPROC, LISTSERV, and MAJORDOMO. These programs are maintained on each list’s host computer; subscribing to lists requires no special software on your machine (just whatever you already use for e-mail)
