You've Got E-Mail

Get on the List

Scott Spanbauer

Like the human brain, e-mail is an underused organ. If you use your account only to stay in touch with coworkers, friends, and family, you're missing something great: mailing lists. Somewhere, a person or company maintains a list on a subject that's near and dear to you: Windows, Writing, Wonderbras, whatever. Though some mailing lists are more trouble than they're worth, especially when participants' banter drowns out the useful information, they're often the best way to stay current on a particular subject.

Most lists are public and let you join by sending subscription commands to the mailing list's server software, often through a Web page. Others are private and may require a human list moderator to approve your request. To find a list of interest, you should first check Liszt at www.liszt.com. In addition to a Yahoo-like directory of more than 89,000 lists, Liszt offers newsgroup and IRC chat channel directories--plus newcomer's guides to all three. Here are some basic survival tips:

Save those instructions. After you subscribe to a list, you'll usually receive an administrative message listing subscription options (including the all-important unsubscribe command) and how to reach the list moderator. Keep this message handy--you're going to need it.

Tame high-volume lists. Some popular subjects generate hundreds of messages a day. To deal with the deluge, you may want to direct incoming messages to a folder--or subscribe in digest mode, in which the day's messages are concatenated and sent as a single message.

Stop, look, and listen. Mailing lists are virtual communities. Before you post your manifesto, find out what the local customs are. And before you ask questions, find out if list members have already prepared a FAQ (frequently asked questions) file. The list server program may even be able to send it to you.

Spam-proof your posts. Spammers often lurk on lists in search of valid e-mail address to add to their databases. To avoid attracting junk mail, change your mail program's settings and your signature file so that your real address doesn't appear in your postings. For example, if your actual address is joe@isp.com, change it to joe at isp dot com or joeREMOVETHIS@isp.com. This will foil address-harvesting programs, though it won't baffle the human beings whose correspondence you welcome.