The Basics of Mailing Lists

A mailing list is much like a newsgroup in that you subscribe to a list based on its topic. The primary difference is that instead of visiting the newsgroup and reading messages of your choice, a mailing list will automatically send every post to the group to your email address.

For a mailing list to work, someone has to handle its management and administration: mostly signing up new members and removing members who have asked to be removed.

In a few mailing lists, that administrative task is handled by a real person. However, most mailing lists are managed not by a person, but by a list server . Sometimes, the mailing lists managed by people are called manual mailing lists, to distinguish them from the lists automated by list servers.

A list server is a program that automatically manages a mailing list. Actually, there are several different programs that manage mailing lists, including Listserv, Listproc, and Majordomo. They are often grouped generically under the term "listserv."