What is an E-Mail Community or "Mailing List"?

An E-Mail Community or "Mailing List" is an online club or social group which corresponds by private mail. Each person who is subscribed to the community mailing list receives private e-mail which has been posted to the list by every other member of the list. Each time someone posts or sends a message to the community a copy of that message is also mailed to everyone else. Conversations or threads emerge where several people can converse in private via the e-mail system. It's similar to a newsgroup only it's not public and very little spam is posted to such moderated groups. Mailing lists or e-mail communities generally deal with very specific subjects which appeal to specific groups of people. All that you need to join an e-mail community or mailing list is a reliable e-mail address to which the messages from the community may be sent. You send a subscription message to the listserver which controls the mailing of the messages thus "subscribing" yourself to the mailing list. Although it's called "subscribing" there is no fee. These groups are free and your e-mail address is generally protected and available only to other members and the community moderators. Once you have confirmed your subscription, the messages from the list will begin arriving in your mailbox. Most groups offer individual letter mode (where each message arrives by itself) or a "digest mode" where you get one large message every day containing the collection of all messages sent for that day. If you choose to "unsubscribe" from the e-mail community or mailing list, you can do so by sending an UNSUBSCRIBE message to the listserver's address to remove yourself from the database. The community moderators are generally willing to help those who have trouble with their subscription or removal requests. Menu driven listservers such as "Onelist" make manageing your individual subscriptions and their settings very easy. If you have further questions regarding mail lists or e-mail communities please contact me.