Mail Lists

Automatic Mail

Automatic Mail | An Example | Homepage Exercise | Going Further

Automated mail lists are basically email, but they have the potential for large impact because they are distributed to a large group (thus, they are closely related to Newsgroups).

What's New about Mail Lists?

Happily, most of our prior knowledge concerning email comes into play, and Mail List etiquette is closely related to newsgroup etiquette, so there isn't a lot more to learn about Mail Lists. Probably the most important new items are

1. Remembering that mail messages may be distributed automatically to all members of the list: don't send a love note to your dearest in a reply to a Mail List message unless you want the world to know what it says! (Similar warnings apply to newsgroups, of course.)

2. How to use email to subscribe, unsubscribe, and set available options for the mail list.

The "unsubscribe" option is important to know; some mail lists will fill your email box in short order if you do not process the messages in timely fashion!

Using Email to Control the List

As we will see in the subsequent example, most of the subscribe/unsubscribe/options functions for Mail Lists are implemented by sending email messages to a prescribed address with particular words or phrases inserted in either the subject field or the body of the email message itself. This allows actions to be taken automatically by a computer that receives the email message and scans it for these key character strings. Since these phrases will likely be processed by a computer, you should take care that they are entered with the correct spelling and syntax.

You may have already encountered an example of this technology if you sent a message to the President in the lesson describing how to send email. It is likely that you received a prompt reply. If you haven't figured it out by now, this was not because the President was sitting at his terminal waiting for your email---the reply was generated by a computer. Perhaps in this case the replies are different, depending on whether certain key words like "Republican" or "Democrat", or "Campaign Contribution" appear in the subject or message fields?

Look Before You Leap

Notice that the email address to which commands go to control the list (for example, to subscribe) is usually DIFFERENT from the email address to which messages are posted for the list, and that there may be additional addresses for email concerning more general questions and requests. Sending things to the wrong address (for example, sending a request to subscribe to the address that posts the message to the entire group) can be a source of considerable embarrassment, so read the instructions first, and double-check the addresses in the "To:" field when sending to the Mail List. In a similar vein, the comments concerning appropriateness of postings, spamming, and flaming discussed in the Netiquette section are relevant to Mail Lists as well.