ListProc: User Information

Participate in an email discussion list

Before you start

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.

List participation basics

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.

Understanding list addresses

Email discussion lists have three important email addresses:

administrative address: communicates with the list processor (a computer program)
discussion list address: communicates with the list participants
list owner(s) address: communicates with the list's owner(s)

It is very important that all list participants understand the nature of these addresses and when to use them. See further explanations below.

Administrative address

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.

List address

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).

Owner address

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.

Understanding the culture of email discussion lists

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.

Avoiding newbie mistakes

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.

Basic discussion list behavior

Remember the following when participating on a list:

Sign your name to your posts (messages)
Remember a list is a public forum, so be considerate of others. Your message will be seen by many people and could potentially be forwarded to many more. Check your messages for spelling and grammar errors before sending.
Learn to use your email program so you can cut and paste relevant portions of email messages to which you are responding.
Always acknowledge the source of a portion of someone else's email message that you are including in your own message and indicate where you have deleted text, if any.
When replying to a message sent to you from a list, make very sure that the reply address is going where you intend. If you are having a private conversation with another person on the list, be sure your reply does not go out to the entire list.
Never, never send commands to the list address.

Additional information about behavior specific to lists is available on our Netiquette and Acronyms and Smileys pages.

How to subscribe and unsubscribe

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:

Because you are communicating with a computer program, it is important that the syntax of your message be absolutely accurate.
All commands are sent to the list processor. At KU, that email address is listproc@ku.edu.
Send only the words shown in the examples, placing them in the body of the message, and replacing the appropriate pieces with information specific to your situation.
If you have an email signature automatically added to your messages, delete it or turn off that feature before sending your message.
In the following examples, replace TEST-L with the name of the list you want to join.

Subscribe to a list

To subscribe, send the following to listproc@ku.edu:
sub TEST-L Firstname Lastname
Substitute the names by which you wish to be identified for Firstname and Lastname. Listproc takes the email address from your message and subscribes you under that address. Thus, you must send your subscribe command from your own email account.
Most list servers send a confirmation that your request has been filled. This may take a few minutes or several days. You should save this response; it usually includes a welcome message and valuable information about the group, such as how to unsubscribe. Some lists require you to confirm your registration annually. You may receive a message asking you to return a message to the list server. On such lists, if you do not confirm your registration within the time alloted you are removed from the list.

End your subscription

To stop your subscription, send the following to listproc@ku.edu from the email address under which you are subscribed:
unsub TEST-L
Again, replace TEST-L with the name of the list you want to leave. Do not put the email address of the list, just the list name. You do not need to include your own name in this command. If you are having trouble unsubscribing from a list, please see Common errors and problems for list subscribers.

Subscription options

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.

Temporarily suspend your subscription (for example, if you plan to be out of town).
Resume a suspended subscription (when you return from being away).
Receive messages in digest form (sends all messages for each day as one mail item).
Conceal your subscription information (so others can't obtain your emai address or see your name on the list of subscribers)
Assign yourself an alias so that you can post messages to the list from more than one email address without subscribing to the list multiple times.

Additional list commands for subscribers

Many other commands, such as finding out who is subscribed to the list, obtaining a information about other lists available on the server, and finding out which lists you are subscribed to (on this server) are available to subscribers. See Common subscriber commands for more information.

Finding lists of interest

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:

http://www.lsoft.com/lists/listref.html

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).

Getting additional help

A complete user's manual for Listproc is available for download at http://listproc.sourceforge.net/manuals.html. The document is in rtf (rich text) format, which means you can open it using a standard word processing program such as WordPerfect or MS Word. Open your word processing program first and then open the file userman.rtf.

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.

Prepared by William Loats of Academic Computing Services, The University of Kansas. October 1999.