This document provides detailed information about joining and participating in email discussion lists at KU and assumes you have a basic understanding of the nature of email discussion lists. Please make certain you are familiar with the general information contained in Email discussion lists at KU before proceeding.
Note: The examples in this guide refer specifically to email discussion lists housed at The University of Kansas and therefore may not apply to other lists housed on other servers.
Email discussion lists housed at The University of Kansas are not restricted to participation by students, faculty, and staff of KU. Each list establishes its own criteria for list membership. However, all lists housed at The Universiy of Kansas must be owned by at least one KU affliliate. See Managing an email discussion list for more information.
Email discussion lists have three important email addresses:
It is very important that all list participants understand the nature of these addresses and when to use them. See further explanations below.
The first, the address of the list processor, is known as the administrative address and is used for sending commands to ListProc. At KU the administrative address is listproc@ku.edu. Commands are used to alter some aspect of your method of participation on the list/group. For example, a list participant uses the administrative address to send commands to subscribe and unsubscribe, as well as set subscriptions to digest mode or to postpone, or check current subscription settings. Additional information about subscribing and subscription options is available below.
The second important email address is that of the discussion list itself. Messages sent to the list's address are distributed to all list subscribers. In the example above beetalk@ku.edu is the email address of the discussion list. Some discussion list names end in -L (dash, letter L) to help people distinguish the email address as one belonging to a list and therefore one that could potentially distribute a message to hundreds of people. It is imperative that you understand the distinction between the administrative address and the list address. It is considered poor "netiquette" to send commands to the list address (and thus to all list members).
Every discussion list has one or more owners. Their email addresses are provided in the welcome message sent to all list subscribers at the time they join. The owners are responsible for keeping the list functioning smoothly and should be contacted if there are any problems, such as inappropriate behaviour by list participants, strange list behaviour such as missing messages or duplicate messages, or problems with subscribing and unsubscribing.
Many discussions list have their own "culture." This may consist of a special set of vocabulary, abbreviations, and other shorthand, a required procedure for introducing oneself to the group, or a specific method for describing the subject of your message.
Unless you are very familiar with the others in the group, it is a good idea to spend some time reading posts (messages) sent to the group before posting your first message. This is known as lurking. Also, read your welcome message carefully, it often contains valuable information for newcomers (known as newbies) such as the address of a Web site to go to for additional information or the location of an FAQ so that you won't ask the same questions that others have asked before you.
Remember the following when participating on a list:
Additional information about behavior specific to lists is available on our Netiquette and Acronyms and Smileys pages.
To get your name and email address on (and off of) a list, you correspond via email with the list server - a machine, not a person. Please note the following:
listproc@ku.edu.
sub TEST-L Firstname Lastname
unsub TEST-L
The following is a brief list of options for changing the way you receive messages on a list. Complete details on these and other options are provided at Common subscriber commands.
While friends and colleagues may be the best source for information about email discussion lists in your field or hobby interest area, the following Web site allows keyword searching for lists:
When you find a list you would like to participate in, be sure to record the two necessary addresses for the lists that interest you: where to send your subscribe command (the administrative address) (such as listproc@ku.edu) and where to send messages intended for subscribers (such as beetalk@ku.edu).
If you're having trouble participating in a list housed at KU, please first contact the owner of your list via email. The owner's email address is listed in the welcome message you should have received upon joining the list. If you no longer have that information or are unsuccessful in obtaining assistance, send email to listadm@ku.edu or call the IT Customer Service Center at 864-8080.
