Using Electronic Discussion
Lists
Electronic discussion lists are an ingeneous way to link
interested parties via email. Essentially, discussion lists are a
sophisticated way of using email in which one email message is
automatically replicated and disseminated to all members of a
pre-specified group of recipients by a "host" computer. If you
have subscribed to the list, you will automatically receive email
sent to the list. Most commonly known as listservs, these
groups are a way for geographically separated professionals,
scholars, and enthusiasts to congregate and communicate on a topic
of interest.
First, a technical note.
"Listserv" is the name of a copyrighted software program that can
distribute email to an unlimited number of users. It is not the
only such program, but it has become the generic term for these
types of groups because it's quite common and was the first
program available. You will also see other discussion groups based
on programs with names such as ListProc, Mailserv, or Majordomo.
You will typically be given additional specific directions on how
to subscribe to a particular group when you become aware of it
(e.g., via a friend's recommendation, a magazine article,
etc.).
Once you subscribe to a group or
"list," you will be sent a list of commands that can be used with
its particular software package. PLEASE SAVE THIS MESSAGE. It will
come in handy later if you wish to leave the group or alter your
subscription.
How to Subscribe to a
Discussion List
For the purposes of this
demonstration, let's look at a listserv to which you could
subscribe on the topic of asset building, an active topic in the
social and behavioral sciences. It is called the "HCHYList." This
is the name of the Search Institute-sponsored list for those
participating or interested in the Healthy Communities-Healthy
Youth Initiative (HC-HY). Here's how you might begin a
subscription.
Start your Internet email
program--any email program and computer linked to the Internet
will do. Create a new message. Address and send the following
message to Search Institute's Majordomo list processing software
at their host computer:
________________________________________________
To:
majordomo@search-institute.org
From:
your-login-here@your-domain-name.edu
Subject: (leave this
blank)
And in the message portion of
the email form, type:
subscribe hchylist
your-login-here@your-domain-name.edu
________________________________________________
In the places above where I have
indicated "your-login-here" and "your-domain-name" you need to
type your personal information. For example, if your name was John
Doe, then here's the message you would send:
________________________________________________
To:
majordomo@search-institute.org
From:
doe@augsburg.edu
Subject: (leave this
blank)
And in the message portion of
the email form, I typed:
subscribe hchylist
doe@augsburg.edu
________________________________________________
Do not include a signature file with your message. Why?
Mailing list software is designed to run without human
intervention, and it recognizes only a few commands. Since many
email programs allow you to automatically append signature
information to your outgoing email messages, you should suppress
this feature (i.e., turn-off your signature) when you correspond
with a discussion list server. If you do include your signature,
you won't break anything, but the list's host computer will
probably send you a message that "John Doe"--or whatever you put
in your signature file--is an unknown command.
If you follow these steps
exactly, you should receive a confirmation message in your
email the next time you check your mail letting you know you have
joined the list. If you don't get it right you will receive an
"undeliverable mail" message, usually within a few seconds of your
request.
Also, for many lists you will also
need to confirm your subscription. This is to make sure people
don't subscribe to a list by mistake.
Unsubscribing from a Discussion
List
When you want to leave the
HCHYList, e.g., if you won't be able to retrieve your email for an
extended period of time, send the following message:
unsubscribe hchylist
your-login-here@your-domain-name.edu
The rest of the unsubscribe
request message is formatted the same as the illustration for
subscribing shown above.
Participating in the
Discussion
The address to which you send
messages actually intended for the participants in the list is
different than the address you used to subscribe to the
list. In our demonstration, the address happens to be:
hchylist@search-institute.org
Finding Other Lists on Topics
of Interest to You
There are literally thousands of
lists available on the Internet on any topic you might imagine,
but how do you find them? As I mentioned above, you may hear of a
list from a friend or in a magazine article, but if you want to
find lists on your own you need to use a search tool. Here are a
few discussion list-specific search sites to get you
started:
CataList is a catalog of LISTSERV
lists. From this page, you can browse public LISTSERV lists on the
Internet, search for mailing lists of interest, and get information
about LISTSERV host sites.
http://www.lsoft.com/lists/listref.html
A searchable list of discussion
lists using Listserv software (and Usenet groups, a related
resource) has been collected at:
http://tile.net/lists/
A brief page reviewing key ideas for group discussions and listing a few good reference sites is found at:
http://www.sharefile.com/content/email-discussion-groups.aspx
You may also be able to find out
the name of other lists from your advisor or other faculty with
whom you will work to complete your research project.
