The LISTSERV Mailing List Manager

LISTSERV was the first popular mailing list management system and is still one of the best.

LISTSERV was the first widely-used list server on the Internet, and the program on which all other list servers are based. LISTSERV was written by Eric Thomas in 1986 for BITNET, a research network that was later subsumed into the Internet. Eric Thomas invented the idea of a program that would maintain a mailing list in an automated fashion.

Note: Many people use "listserv" to refer to any mailing list, but LISTSERV® is a specific program. The name of the program is a registered trademark of L-Soft. So call a mailing list a mailing list, not a listserv.

Online LISTSERV Documentation

L-Soft international, Inc. (http://www.lsoft.com) maintains LISTSERV, which runs on a variety of systems. The program can be a bit pricey, but it works well, especially with large numbers of lists and subscribers. The New Owner's Quick Start Introduction to LISTSERV is online at http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/1.8d/qs/qs.html, and the LISTSERV list owner's FAQ is at http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/owner-faq.stm. The AOL-LIST-OWNERS FAQ describes how to manage a list on AOL's LISTSERV installation: their FAQ is at http://members.aol.com/adamkb/alo-faq/index.html. A good list of LISTSERV how-do-I's is at http://listserv.buffalo.edu/owner/faqs/. The LISTSERV List Owner's Survival Guide is at http://www.listserv.de/doku/LOSG.HTML.

Mailing Lists about LISTSERV

The LSTOWN-L list discusses LISTSERV and is managed LISTSERV's publishers, L-Soft. To join, send a message to listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com with the line "subscribe lstown-L yourname" in the body of the message.

Commands for LISTSERV Subscribers

Some LISTSERV commands (mail to LISTSERV@hostname):

To do this... Send this command

Subscribe to a list subscribe listname Firstname Lastname

Sign off of a list signoff listname

Hold your mail set listname nomail

Resume getting messages set listname mail

Get messages individually set listname nodigest

Get messages in digests set listname digest

See your list settings query listname

See who's on the list review listname

Conceal your name set listname conceal

See which lists you are on which

Copyright 1999-2000 Margaret Levine Young, one of the Internet Gurus.
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http://lists.gurus.com/listserv.html page last changed on January 14, 2000.