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Mailing List Management Programs (List Servers)

How a List Server Works

• The subscriber database is the part of the list server program that maintains the list of subscribers with their subscription settings. This program responds to "subscribe" and "signoff" commands received via e-mail to the list server's administrative address or to clicks generated on a Web interface. The administrative address is the address of the list server itself (rather than the address of a list managed by that server). For most list servers, the administrative address has the name of the list server (LISTSERV, Majordomo, or whatever) as its username; all have the hostname where the list server is running as the domain name of the address. For example, the administrative address of the Majordomo program running at gurus.com is majordomo@gurus.com.

• The message distributor receives messages addresses to the list address and disributes them to the subscribers of the list. The list address is the address to which postings for the list are sent: it is not for sending subscribe and unsubscribe commands. The list address usually has the name of the list as the username and the list server's hostname as the domain name. For example, if a list named "kideo" were managed by the majordomo program at gurus.com, the list address would be kideo@gurus.com. The message distributor also sends error messages to the list managers and, for moderated lists, sends messages to the list moderators for approval.

Each list server has a site manager who is in charge of maintaining the list server program. The site manager is usually also the person who can create, rename, and delete lists.

Three Kinds of Addresses

• The administrative address is the address to which you send commands that you want the list server to perform. For example, you send subscribe and unsubscribe commands to the administrative address. The administrative address for most list servers is the name of the list server (LISTSERV, ListProc, Majordomo, Lyris, etc.) followed by an @ and the name of the computer on which the list server runs. For example, to subscribe to the chicken-L list managed by Majordomo running at gurus.com, you send a command to majordomo@gurus.com. All the lists hosted by one list server use the same administrative address.

• The list address is where you send messages that you want to distribute to all the subscribers of the list. The list address is usually the name of the list followed by an @ and the name of the computer that hosts the list. For example, if you want to send a message about domestic poulty to the subscribers of the chickens-L list hosted at gurus.com, you'd send your message to chickens@gurus.com. Each list has its own list address.

• The list manager address is how you contact the person or people who manage the list. The list manager address is usually the list name followed by "-request@" and the host name of the list server. For example, the list manager of the chicken-L@gurus.com list would be chicken-L-request@gurus.com. Write to the list manager, not the list address, with questions about the list or for help with your subscription.

Note: Don't send list server commands to the list address! Commands (like "subscribe" and "unsubscribe") are not of interest to the subscribers of the list. Don't send them to the list address, where they may be distributed to all the subscribers of the list, and make you look like a clueless idiot. Instead, send them to the administrative address, where the list server program can carry out your commands.

Some Popular List Servers

• LISTSERV: the first major list server (hence the name)

• ListProc: a LISTSERV-like program

• Majordomo: an open source list server

• Lyris: an list server that runs under Windows

Some list servers are built into Web sites for subscribing, unsubscribing, and even reading mailing list messages: click here for the names of mailing list Web sites.

Many other list servers are available, including:

• LetterRip Pro (http://www.fogcity.com/letterrip.html) for the Macintosh

• Listar (http://www.listar.org) for Linux

• Macjordomo (http://leuca.med.cornell.edu/Macjordomo) for the Mac

• Mailman (http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman.html) for UNIX, with a built-in Web interface

• Minordomo (http://www.nodomainname.net/software/minordomo) a subset of Majordomo for Linux

• Sympa (http://listes.cru.fr/sympa) for Linux, in either English or Franch

Venerable mailing list maven Vivian Neou maintains a list of list servers at http://www.catalog.com/vivian/mailing-list-software.html. The dated but still useful Mailing List Management Software FAQ is at ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/news.answers/mail/list-admin/software-faq.

Finding a Mailing List Host Site

• Brian Edmonds' list at http://www.gweep.bc.ca/~edmonds/usenet/ml-providers.html. To add a site to this list, write to Brian Edmonds at brian@gweep.bc.ca.

• Vivian Neou's list at http://www.catalog.com/vivian/mailing-list-providers.html. To add a site to this list, write to Vivian Neou at vivian@sri.com.

• The Mailing List Software Inventory is hosted in France, at http://www.cru.fr/listes/apropos/robots.html.

Copyright 1999-2000 Margaret Levine Young, one of the Internet Gurus.
To test your e-mail, write to test@gurus.com. For questions or comments about this site, write to listgurus@gurus.com.
http://lists.gurus.com/mlms.html page last changed on January 14, 2000.