At 03:17 PM 9/7/97 -0400, you wrote:
>I appreciate Lydia's candor in the previous post.
>
>I have taken her suggestions under advisement and will reconsider what I had
>planned.  I think I might have students find lists that they have an
interest in
>and start following threads there.  This list might be a little too
technical and
>busy for their needs.
>
>Can anyone point me in the direction of a list that is more
newbie-focused?  As in
>how to use listservs and what sort of issues are involved?
>
>I'm grateful for any support you can give in this 'rabbit trail' from the
normal
>list traffic :)

One quick and easy place to evaluate lists, if you have access:
there's a hierarchy on Usenet news called "bit.listserv.*", which are the
Usenet gateways for various mailing lists. You can use the newsgroup to
read about a weeks' worth of various postings and see which are in the type
of area you're looking for.
If they can all get into newsgroups, you might consider alt.usage.english
or alt.folklore.urban for pure reading pleasure in the area of human
interaction (alt.fan.keanu-reeves also makes for some _very_ entertaining
reading...) However, I would advise against having the students post to
these vicious fora until they understand the ground rules VERY well.
Finally, if you want to find a newsgroup on the topic you're interested in,
try
http://www.dejanews.com and go to the interest finder, or for mailing
lists, try L-Soft's "catalist" search engine.

HTH,
Philo
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