Mailing Lists and Newsgroups

Mailing Lists and Newsgroups


Mailing lists and Usenet news permit widespread sharing of information among people with similar interests. Email discussion groups are made up of people anywhere on the Internet who agree to communicate about a certain topic using email. Usenet, Netnews or News permit the users the exchange or read information about specific topics. Messages are posted in a manner similar to that of a bulletin board rather than exchanged as email.

Mailing List Resources:

Liszt Mailing List Directory

E-Mail Discussion Groups

Publicly Available Mailing Lists

Catalist

Definitions

You are encouraged to join a mailing list on a topic of interest to you. By being in touch with people who have a similar interest as yours, you have access to a vast amount of experience and advice. If you join a mailing list, you are not expected to jump right into the conversation. "Lurking" is a time-honored tradition in mailing lists and newsgroups. Lurking means reading the messages that are generated from the list, but not contributing any of your own. In fact, it's strongly suggested that you lurk for at least a short while to get the flavor of the group, and not embarass yourself by saying something off-topic.

Make sure you know the difference between the address of your mailing list and the address of the listserver. The "listserver" does all the housekeeping functions for the mailing list, such as letting people subscribe and unsubscribe to the list. Everything it does is automatic. It's address usually looks something like these:

The actual emails that you want to send to every other member on your list go to a completely different address. Be sure to save the welcome message instructions for every list you belong to. That will help you to know when to use which address.

Netiquette (Dos and don'ts when communicating through newsgroups and mailing lists)

On-line etiquette is often referred to as "netiquette." It’s basically a set of guidelines that, if followed, will assure your maximum effectiveness as an online communicator and keep you out of trouble.

1. When you join a list, monitor the messages for a few days to get a feel for what common questions are asked, and what topics are deemed off-limits. This is commonly referred to as lurking. When you feel comfortable with the group, then start posting.

2. See if there is a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) for a group that you are interested in joining. Veteran members get annoyed when they see the same questions every few weeks.

3. Avoid blatant advertising - create dialogs and offer useful information.

4. Follow any and all guidelines that the listowner has posted; the listowner establishes the "netiquette" standards for her/his list.

5. Keep in mind the broad, global audience that subscribes to newsgroups and mailing lists. Some readers may not understand your references.

6. Don’t be offended by other people’s ideas or opinions. And, if you do read something that you really feel uncomfortable with, try to ignore it. There are people who will post controversial positions just to bait others.

7. No one can see that smile on your face or the twinkle in your eye in the newsgroups or the mailing lists. Therefore, humor can sometimes be misperceived as sarcasm or callousness. Emoticons can help :-) (like this sideways smile).

8. Keep your questions and comments relevant to the focus of the discussion group.

9. If you can respond to someone else's question, do so through email. Twenty people answering the same question on a large list can fill your mailbox (and those of everyone else on the list) quickly.

10. Resist the temptation to "flame" (the Internet word for attacking another person’s ideas or actions). Remember that these discussions are "public" and meant for constructive exchanges. Treat the others on the list as you would want them to treat you.

11. When replying to a message posted to a discussion group, check the address to be certain it's going to the intended location (person or group). It can be very embarrassing if you reply incorrectly and post a personal message to the entire discussion group that was intended for an individual.

12. When signing up for a group, it is important to save your subscription confirmation letter for reference. That way if you go on vacation you will have the subscription address for suspending mail.

Thanks to The Net: User Guidelines and Netiquette at http://www.fau.edu/rinaldi/net/dis.htm for some of the items listed above.

Newsgroups

DejaNews lets you search all available archives of newsgroups. An excellent way to get started is to click on "New Users".

Master List of Newsgroup Hierarchies

Reference.COM

Articles about new newsgroups

Explanatory articles for new Usenet users

Usenet FAQs

Questions from new Usenet users

Definitions:


Usenet - "User's Network". The cooperative body that distributes newsgroups over the Internet.

Newsgroups are special interest groups which have a virtual message board where participants can read and post messages. They differ from mailing lists in that you need newreader software to read the postings, and your Internet service provider must also provide access. Currently, there are more than 20,000 newsgroups covering a broad range of topics.

Every newgroup message has a subject (headline). Participants can read a post and reply, or add a new message. Replies are loosely attached to the original messsage and the stream is called a "thread".

Usenet uses eight generic categories:

alt.
alternative subjects, often politics or entertainment
biz.
business-related
comp.
computer-related
misc.
miscellaneous
news.
not media-type news, but about newsgroups and Usenet
rec.
recreational activities, hobbies, art
sci.
science-related
soc.
social issues and socializing
ba. is a typical regional designation meaning San Francisco Bay Area.

Including Online Information in Research Papers

Recommended online resources:

Citation Process

  1. Get advance permission from your professor to include information gathered from the Internet in your research. This is a good idea because many professors aren't very knowledgeable about the Internet.
  2. Use your critical evaluation skills to decide which sources are the most authoritative and worthy.
  3. Save or print all documents you plan to cite. If ever questioned, this will allow you to prove that you have cited authentic sources.
  4. Many Web documents are really electronic versions of content that has also been published in print form. If a printed source exists, cite that instead. It may be easier for the reader to get hold of the print version if they want to find out more information.

The magazine, INTERNET WORLD, in their September 1996 edition, included an excellent article titled "Cyber Citations".

If you were writing a research paper on documenting Internet sources and wanted to include information from this Web article, this is how the bibliographic citation would look:

Arnzen, Michael A. "Cybercitations." INTERNET WORLD. 9 Oct. 1996. http://www.iw.com/1996/09/cybercitations.htm (29 Oct. 1996)

Web Site Citation Style:
Author (if known). "Title of document." "Main Title or any print publication information (if applicable)." Last date updated or revised (if known). URL. (Date accessed)

Let's say that you communicated with Michael Arnzen via email and wanted to include his comments in your paper, this is how the citation might look:

Arnzen, Michael A. mikea@darkwing.unoregon.edu "Updated Online Citations." 14 Oct. 1996. Personal email. (17 Oct. 1996)

Email Citation Style:
Author. Author's email address. "Subject line of message." Date of post. Personal email. (Date read).

If you wanted to refer to the gopher-housed Writers' Workshop Online Handbook at the University of Chicago, this is how the citation would look:

"Single author in a bibliography entry -- MLA Format." University of Illinois Writers' Workshop Online Handbook. gopher://gopher.uiuc.edu:70/00/Libraries/writers/i/im/imb/imb1 (29 Oct 1996)

Gopher Citation Style:
Author (if known). "Title of Document." Any publication information (if applicable). Gopher address. (Date accessed)

You research further, and you find a newsgroup post that Michael Arnzen has made and wish to include it in your research:

Arnzen, Michael A. mikea@darkwing.uoregon.edu "Re: Tho'ts on Stephen King's Misery" 26 July 1995. rec.arts.books (29 Oct. 1996)

Newsgroup Citation Style:
Author. Author's email address. "Subject Line" Date of publication. Newsgroup. (Date accessed)

You find a posting from a mailing list that you wish to include:

Lanford, Audri G. audri@ajl.com "Subscription Sites: $$ or no?" 31 Dec. 1995. http://www.i-m.com/hyper/inetarchive/December-22-31-1995/0068.htm (29 Oct. 1996)

Mailing List Citation Style:
Author (if known). Author's email address. "Subject Line." Date of post. Address of mailing list or of message. (Date accessed)

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Mailing List Exercises

[Send Email to Instructor] [Internet Resources: CIS/LBT 160] [ ] [Introduction, Web Browsers, Navigation, Email] [Browser and Email Exercises] [Search Strategy, Search Engines] [Internet Search Exercises] [Finding Files & Finding People] [Finding Places and People Exercises] [Mailing Lists and Newsgroups] [Mailing List Exercises] [Gopher, Archie, Veronica, Jughead] [Gopher Exercises] [FTP: File Transfer Protocol] [FTP Exercises] [Telnet: Logging in to a remote computer] [Telnet Exercises] [Privacy, Security, Legal & Ethical Issues] [Ethical Issues: Exercises] [Evaluating Information Found on the WWW] [Evaluation Exercises]