Comments, please!
How to start a mailing list
by Una Smith
10 March 1994
Previous authors' last edits:
Chuq Von Rospach ([log in to unmask]); 11 Aug 1985
Gene Spafford ([log in to unmask]); 18 November 1987
Contents
Mailing list or newsgroup?
Write the charter
Find a host computer
Get set up
Test everything
Advertize
Mailing list or newsgroup?
There are two principal forms of public discussion group available via
the worldwide computer networks (the Internet, UUCP, and many others).
Broadly speaking, these are Usenet-style newsgroups and mailing lists.
Someone wishing to create a new discussion group has many options to
choose among. These options break into three natural categories:
1. Create a new group in one of the "mainstream" Usenet hierarchies;
comp.*, misc.*, news.*, rec.*, sci.*, soc.*, and talk.*. This
involves an elaborate process, and requires that at least 100
people vote in favor of the proposed group. The procedure is
described in the Usenet FAQ "How to Create a New Usenet Newsgroup",
which you will find posted in news.announce.newgroups.
2. Create a new group in a hierarchy outside the Usenet mainstream:
major hierarchies include alt.* and biz.*, among others. Many
countries and regions have their own hierarchies. The procedure
for new group creation varies among these, but is usually fairly
informal; contact your local computer system administrator for
help tracking these down. See also the Usenet FAQ "So You Want
to Create an Alt Newsgroup", posted in alt.answers.
3. Set up a mailing list. This is a popular alternative for highly
specialized topics, or where the readership is small. A mailing
list can be an excellent first step toward generating sufficient
interest to carry through the creation of a mainstream Usenet group,
which may be independent of the mailing list, or even linked to it
via a "gateway".
This FAQ deals specifically with the third option above: setting up and
managing a mailing list.
Write the charter
The first thing you will need is a charter: what is the mailing list to
be about? Who might want to subscribe? You should draft a blurb that
is no more than a screen (22 lines) long, describing the topic of the
mailing list. Once you're ready to go, you will want to distribute the
blurb to various mailing lists that are set aside for announcments. Write
it in advance so you will have it to help you sell your idea, if you need
help getting started.
Find a host computer
Next first task is to find a computer to host your list. This may be
your own personal computer, a computer you use at work or school, or
a computer owned by someone who is willing to let it be used to host
mailing lists. If you have access to more than one operating system,
you may want to explore the various ways of managing lists, outlined
below, before you decide on what computer to use as a host.
Get set up
The simplest way to manage a mailing list is to have all submissions
and subscription requests sent to you. When submissions come in, you
would redistribute them by hand.
Subscription list maintenance is rather simple, on Unix-based systems:
store a list of all subscriber e-mail addresses in a file (assume the
file is named "foo"), each one on a separate line. When you want to
mail a message to the list, use the command:
mail -s "subject" `cat foo` < message
If your system uses "sendmail", you may be able to mail it as:
mail -s "subject" ":include: foo" < message
The above assumes the -s option to mail. On System V versions of Unix,
this only works with mailx. If all else fails, you can use instead:
(echo "Subject: $S" ; echo "" ; cat message) | mail `cat foo`
On IBM mainframe computers, the popular NAMES program will let you
build lists of e-mail addresses, all reached by the same "nickname".
This is very simple and straightforward. It requires no support
(or cooperation, for that matter) from the system administration.
When the list becomes active, though, it can be disruptive to your
work and some messages can get lost in the shuffle in your mailbox.
The next, more complex method is to automatically redistribute any
submissions, by taking advantage of built-in or added software.
On Unix systems, the most general method assumes either "delivermail"
or "sendmail", and the special file /usr/lib/aliases. If you can make
modifications to /usr/lib/aliases, you can add entries into that
file to handle the redistribution for you. For example, Ima User has
a mailing list about the nuclear winter hypothesis. She has an account
on a computer with the Internet address "foo.stateu.edu", where her
username is "ima". She has named her mailing list "nuke-winter", so
all contributions would be mailed to the e-mail address
[log in to unmask]
and all administration messages to
[log in to unmask]
And she keeps the list of subscribers' e-mail addresses in a file named
"subscribers" in her own home directory. The above mailing list addresses
are translated in "/usr/lib/aliases" on the computer foo.stateu.edu as
follows:
nuke-winter: :include:~ima/subscribers
nuke-winter-request: ima
the ":include:" does the same thing that the backquoted "cat" command
did in the first setup -- it includes the list of subscriber addresses.
Ima does not need to run "newaliases" when she changes the included
file, so there is no more administrative overhead to this setup than
the previous, and things don't show up in her mailbox until they've
been sent (assuming that she subscribes to her own list). This setup
does not allow you to moderate the group, that is, it doesn't let you
prevent inappropriate messages from being distributed to your readers.
Finally, if the mailing list volume suggests it, you can go to a digested
mailing list. To do this, you would collect all of the contributed
messages, and occasionally concatenate or edit them into a single article
that you would then send out by some variation of the two setups shown
above. Ima User might use the following lines in her /usr/lib/aliases
file to handle this task:
nuke-winter: :include:~ima/contributions
nuke-winter-distrib: :include:~ima/subscribers
nuke-winter-request: ima
E-mail to [log in to unmask] would be stored in the file
"contributions" in Ima's home directory. If Ima wanted to be alerted
when contributions arrive, she might use:
nuke-winter: ima,:include:~ima/contributions
so that she would receive copies in her mailbox. When she is ready to
send out a digest, she would edit the "contributions" file and then mail
it to nuke-winter-dist.
There are a number of popular software packages designed to automate
the business of managing a mailing list. They all involve setting up
a "daemon" software program, known as a "mailing list manager" or MLM.
For this, you need to have the cooperation of the administrator of
your computer. Two of the most popular programs for Unix systems are
the Unix ListProcessor and Majordomo.
On IBM mainframes, the extremely popular LISTSERV program provides MLM
services with many advanced, complicated features. If you are at a
university that currently runs a LISTSERV daemon, you may be able to
have your mailing list run by it also. Talk to your computer support
staff or read the newsgroup bit.listserv.lstsrv-l.
Test everything
Be very sure everything works, before you open your list to subscribers.
Test every aspect of the procedure, using any other e-mail addresses
you may have. Recruit a few friends to help you further test things
out, and to get some sort of discussion started, before making a public
announcement.
Advertize
Once you have your submission address set up, and you have tested the
whole thing, and got a few friends to subscribe and further test it for
you, it is time to announce your service to the world. The newsgroup
bit.listserv.new-list is reserved for just this purpose: follow the
example of other announcements posted there when you submit yours.
This newsgroup is the same as the mailing list [log in to unmask],
so if you don't have access to Usenet, you can still submit your note.
Also, you may want to announce your new list in a few other, related
mailing lists or newsgroups (including news.announce.newgroups), and
drop a note to the keeper of any appropriate lists of mailing lists:
use your blurb for this. Be sure to use a meaningful subject line on
your announcement.
--
Una Smith [log in to unmask]
Department of Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8104 USA
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