Introduction

Subscribing and unsubscribing to lists

Regulating mail inflow

Mail

Digests

Index

Topics

Nomail

Aacknowledgement

Reproducing

Reviewing List Information

Concealing Your Name and Address

List Statistics

Introduction

Having ascertained the names and addresses of lists that you consider are worth exploring you need to subscribe to them in order to assess whether the range and depth of topics covered justify your following their exchanges, not to mention the management toil involved. The exceptions are those lists that have a Web interface, which you can monitor through your Web browser.  Even if you never contribute to a list, once you have subscribed your mailbox will begin to fill up with messages. Some lists are very active and you could receive hundreds of messages a week. Even if you do not read them all, you will have to go down your list of messages and decide which to read,  what to do with them; archive, read, delay reading, print, forward, or delete. At the very least you will have to wade through the subject headings to get to communications from other sources. If you are not going to be able to access your mailbox for some time, you may want to put receipt of messages from the lists you have subscribed to on hold. When you return you will need to resume receipt of messages and you may want to scrutinise the communications to the list that you did not receive during your absence. Although all this may seem somewhat time-consuming and tedious, the benefits from subscribing to some lists more than outweigh the burdens associated with management tasks. Moreover, there are a range of commands that you can issue that enable you to decide when and how you will receive communications from the list.

Subscribing and Unsubscribing to Lists

Having used one of the methods described in the previous document in this series you will have obtained an address in the format: ADDICT-L@KENTVM.BITNET Usually there will be an accompanying description which details the subject matter the list deals with. In this instance: Academic & Scholarly discussion of addiction related topics. The ADDICT-L component of the address is the name of the list. The KENTVM part of the address is the node name, that is, the address of the computer on which the list management package is located. Bitnet is the name of the network on which this list appears.

In order to subscribe to this mailing list you have to send a command to the computer from which the list is managed, instructing the software package to add your name to the list of subscribers. It is essential, however, that you distinguish between the list, in this case ADDICT-L, and the software management package on this node. The distinction is critical because when you send a message to the list it is transmitted to everyone who subscribes to that list. So, if you respond to some contribution made by another subscriber, you post it to the address ADDICT-L@KENTVM.BITNET; this is what features in the To: line of your email. On the other hand, if you want to subscribe to the list, to obtain information concerning the number of subscribers, to temporarily halt your mail, to search the archives, etc., you want to send a command to the software management package. There is no point sending a command requesting to be added, or taken off the list, to the list members. They are not responsible for adding names to a list, or for removing them. This is done automatically, in most cases, by the software management package. Consequently, you need to send such commands to LISTSERV@KENVM.BITNET. As you can see, this is identical to the previous address, but the management package name has been substituted for the list name.

I noted above that it was critical that you bear this distinction in mind. If you send the command to the wrong address, it is quite likely that nothing will happen; that is, you will not be added or removed from the list, or whatever else you wanted to achieve will not be implemented. Secondly, some members on the list may not react kindly to such messages being posted. If the heading of the message carried the subject `subscribe...' or `unsubscribe...' most recipients will simply not bother to read it. Unfortunately, usually there is no subject heading at all, or one is included that does not indicate the nature of the contents. In either case, recipients frequently feel obliged to open the message on the grounds that it may contain some important information that otherwise would be missed, written by someone who inadvertently forgot to complete the subject heading. Many subscribers find it irritating to find that the message contains instructions which should have been sent to Listserv, as this invariably indicates that the sender has not bothered to learn the basics of mail list participation. It is inevitable that if you subscribe to a list you will encounter before long the message `How do I get off this list', or the like. Please remember: messages to the mailing list members are addressed to the name of the list <ACTIV-L>; commands are sent to LISTSERV@<ADDRESS>.

To subscribe to a list you proceed as follows: (1) In the address section of the message header enter LISTSERV@<ADDRESS>, substituting for <ADDRESS> the address of the LISTSERV that you are sending the message to. [Please note that it does not matter whether the address is in lower or upper case.] (2) Leave the subject line of the header empty. (3) In the body of the message type: SUBSCRIBE <LISTNAME> <full-name> So, if, for example,  Jack Jordan wanted to subscribe to ADDICT-L, the text in the body of the message would read: SUBSCRIBE ADDICT-L Jack Jordan. [The text does not have to be emboldened, and you can use the abbreviation SUB for SUBSCRIBE.] In due course, usually no more than a few hours, frequently only minutes, you will receive a response giving you further instructions. These may include, in some few cases, a notification that you will not be added to the list, if the list is a closed one. In other instances you may be informed that the subscription application has been submitted to the list owner, who will respond in due course. Such lists are moderated.

The procedure forf unsubscribing from a list is equally simple. Follow (1) and (2) in the preceding paragraph. In the body of the message substitute UNSUBSCRIBE or SIGNOFF for SUBSCRIBE.

The overwhelming majority of academically oriented lists originally formed part of a network called BITNET, which is an acronym for Because It's Time Network. As we saw above, the ADDICT-L mailing list is part of the BITNET network. When BITNET mailing lists were subscribed to only by members of the BITNET network, it was not necessary to add the name BITNET to the name of the computer node which managed that list. As many such lists are now subscribed to by Internet users who are not part of that network, and as there are gateways connecting the two networks, it is necessary when sending mail from the Internet to a BITNET computer host, to add the term BITNET to the address. In most cases where you come across a reference to a mailing list that you consider worthy of further investigation, the text term BITNET will already constitute part of the address you observe. In some cases you may come across a reference where the address is in the form ACTIVE-L@TREACH In such instances, you will need to add the text BITNET, so that the address for list communications will be ACTIVE-L@TREACH.BITNET

The above methods of addressing commands and messages to BITNET addressess invariably works. There are a few computers, however, which cannot interpret this command for routing mail between the Internet and BITNET. If you are sure that the address you have is correct, and the message you sent bounces, then try addressing the message as follows:

list name or listserv%node.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu In our previous example, this will translate as ADDICT-L%KENVM.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU

When you do this, you are directing the message to a gateway to BITNET, the address succeeding the @ characater, from whence it is moved on to the appropriate BITNET node.

Finally, as Listserv is an automated mailing list package, there are many mailing lists which are not part of BITNET which use this software. Their addresses, therefore, will not include the term BITNET. For instance, the ALTLEARN list focuses on alternative approaches to learning, and the listserv address is LISTSERV@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU

Regulating Mail Inflow

As noted earlier, some lists are very active, generating a considerable volume of messages. Many individuals subscribe to a number of lists, which compounds the problem. Many lists, however, provide subscribers with options for regulating the way in which their messages are managed. All these options can be enabled/disabled by using the SET command. The precise format of the command for each option is demonstrated below, after the nature of the option has been described. Please reember that all these commands are sent to: LISTSERV@<node>.<network>[e.g. listserv@ sjuvm.stjohns.edu].   In each case you leave the subject line in the message blank, and include the SET instruction in the body of the message.

The Mail option is the default. If you issue none of the other commands detailed below, you will receive your mail in the form of individual messages. Although this maximises the number of messages that you receive from the list, it enables you to sort them as convenient: deleting, saving, archiving, reading, printing, and filtering. You will only need to issue this command if you had previously chosen one of the other options listed below, and later wish to revert to the default mode. If you have just subscribed to a list, as this is the default mode, there is no need to send the following command.

SET MAIL <list-name>

Alternatively, you could choose to receive your messages in the form of a digest, by issuing the DIGESTS command. Instead of receiving individual messages, you will receive, at periodic intervals, one email communication that will include all   messages sent to the list since the last digest was despatched. The length of the periodic interval varies with the extent of activity on particular lists. In some cases it can be daily, whereas in others it is weekly or monthly. This option has the advantage of not cluttering up your mailbox with a large number of messages, and allows you to file away the message for future reference if you do not have time to deal with them as they come in. You also do not have to go through your mailbox sorting out messages from the list from others you receive. This mode of receiving list messages, however, reduces the flexibility of control. When you receive individual messages you can frequently establish from the subject heading alone what to do with the message. If it is on a topic that, from your reading of previous communications, you know that you are not interested in, you can easily delete it. If it is a topic that you are interested in, but have no time to absorb at present, you can save it to disk, print for later reading, or archive. When you receive messages in digest form, you have to scroll down what at times can be a very lengthy document, identifying messages of interest. This can be quite tiring, and you can easily miss messages that you might be interested in. When you do encounter messages that are of interest, you have to decide what to do with them. To print or save them to disk, you would have to block them, copy them to the clipboard, paste them into some other application, and then print or save them. It is unlikely that you will want to archive the digest, as it will contain many messages that are unlikely to be of any future interest. On the other hand, if you are interested in the range of topics that a list deals with, and the quality of exchanges, this might be a good option.

SET DIGESTS <list-name>

If you choose the INDEX option, you will receive a message at periodic intervals that will give you a limited amount of information on the messages sent to the list in the interim since the last index. This includes the name of the sender, the subject heading and length of the message, and the date and time it was sent. With this information you will be able to retrieve messages that interest you from the list archive. Details of the procedures involved are given in a later document in this series.

SET INDEX <list-name>

Some lists allow for the separation of their communications into a list of topics, eleven being the maximum. To establish whether or not the lists you subscribe to have enabled this facility, you need to use the REVIEW command, discussed below. If the list owner has enabled topics, then, having established what these are, either from the instructions you received following subscription, or by using the review command, you can elect to receive messages relating to the topics of your choice. Please note: the TOPICS option is only available for the default mode of MAIL. If you have set your options to the digest or index mode, you will not receive information classified by topics.

SET <list-name> TOPICS: <topic names>

Each topic is separated by a space from the other topics. In the example we used above, the ADDICT-L list, dealing with addiction, topics could be organised by type of drug. There might be topics on cocaine, marijuana, ecstasy, heroin, speed, etc. You can, of course, subsequently alter your choices by sending another command to Listserv. To add a topic you use the + character, and to remove a topic you employ the - character. Assume that your original instruction was:

SET ADDICT-L TOPICS: COCAINE HEROIN

Subsequently you decide that you no longer want messages dealing with heroin, but you would like to see those relating to ecstasy. The command that would implement this choice is:

SET ADDICT-L TOPICS: -HEROIN +ECSTASY

You set the NOMAIL option if you do not want to receive mail from the list. This command is usually sent if you want to stop mail accumulating in your mailbox whilst you are away. It is not meant as an alternative to ending your subscription to the list. When you wish to resume normal service, you use the SET command to issue the MAIL option.

SET <list-name> NOMAIL

If you send a message to a list, you may wish to receive an acknowledgement from the Listserv that it has been successfully distributed. To do so you use the ACK command.

SET <list-name> ACK

If you are going to be sending contributions to a list relatively regularly, you can decide whether or not you will be sent copies of those messages. By default you will not be sent such messages, the command being NOREPRO, which you may want to use if you previously had requested that such messages be sent to you by issuing the REPRO command. If you have requested that your own messages be sent to you, then you will not need to have Listserv send you an acknowledgement of receipt of your messages.

SET <list-name> REPRO

List Information: The Review Command

You can use the REVIEW command to obtain information about the list. Although it would seem to be more logical to use this command to obtain information prior to deciding whether to subscribe or not, many lists do not implement the command for non-subscribers. So, to get the information it is best to subscribe first. Unsubscribing later is uncomplicated and not particularly time consuming.

The information you will receive is divided into two sections. The first part, known as the control section, relates to the list itself. It informs you about the subject matter the list deals with, who is the moderator/list owner, who can join the list, whether it is divided into topics, and whether it is archived, that is, whether all messages sent are kept in a database. The second section, the subscription part, contains a list of all the subscribers to the list, including their names and email addresses. It is useful to know that this information is available, for a number of reasons. First, you may wish to conceal your name and address from other members of the list, for which see below, or, more broadly, from anyone who could inform themselves of this by subscribing temporarily to the list. Secondly, you may be able to use such information to your own advantage. For instance, you might seek reviewers for a book or journal, potential delegates to a conference, partners to a research project, or information in connection with a research paper, etc. Thirdly, on many lists there are subscribers who never actually send messages, or very rarely, but who are renowned experts in their field, even though they are only `lurking'. You might want to exchange personal communications with such subscribers in connection with topics which have been discussed on the list, even though they have decided to refrain from contributing to the general discussion.

In order to receive both sections of the information disclosed by using the REVIEW instruction, you use the following command:

REVIEW <list-name>

There are a number of options which you can exercise whilst employing this command, not all of which will be discussed here. If you just want to receive information about the list parameters, you issue the following command:

REVIEW <list-name> SHORT

If you want to receive information only about the subscribers, you issue the following command:

REVIEW <list-name> NOHEADER

By default the list of subscribers will be sorted by their computer node in alphabetical order. You can, however, instruct Listserv to order by country, by name, and by user-ID. To do so use the following command format:

REVIEW <list-name> BY <COUNTRY/USERID/NODEID/NAME>

Sometimes you might want to combine a number of these options together. For instance, you may just want to receive a list of subscribers, and have these sorted by name. In this case you will want only the SHORT form of the review, sorted by name. The command you should send to Listserv is:

REVIEW <list-name> (SHORT BY  NAME)

Concealing your Name and Address

If you want to ensure that your name and email address will not be disclosed to others, you issue the following command to Listserv:

CONCEAL <list-name>

If, having concealed your name, you wish to revert to the default, i.e., name and address publicly available,  you issue the same instruction, substituting NOCONCEAL for conceal.

List Statistics

Listserv packages compile statistical information which may be of interest to some parties. This includes information on the names and addresses and number of messages sent by each members to the list, the network load of the list, etc. The command syntax is:

STATS <list-name>

Unfortunately many listowners are either not familiar with the command or have not ported it.

The above information covers sufficient ground for most users of mailing lists. More detailed information can be obtained from the document LISTSERV Guide for GENERAL USE/LISTSERV MAILING LIST Functions.