Mailing Lists
"Email is packaged by intellectual weight, not volume. Some settling of contents may have occurred during transmission." (Anon)
A mailing list is a kind of hybrid - part newsgroup, part e-mail. It is similar to a newsgroup in that your messages are read by a large audience rather than by a single recipient. However, unlike a newsgroup, you use email to correspond so all messages sent to the mailing list are delivered to you when you collect your normal email.
Subscribing To A Mailing List
Unlike the usual paper magazine subscriptions, though, there is no money involved.
By subscribing, all you are doing is joining the list so that you will automatically receive any messages sent to the list via e-mail and be able to send mail messages yourself.
To subscribe, you will need to send an email to a specific email address asking to subscribe. The details vary with different lists, but usually your message will have one line in the body:
sub listname yourname
where listname is the name of the list, and yourname is your full name (e.g. sub SAS-L John Smith).
Some mailing lists then send you an email asking you to confirm your subscription with a second email within a day or so. This is simply to reduce the chances of individuals maliciously subscribing you to lists without your permission.
You should then receive an email confirming your subscription to the mailing list and including any relevant information relating to the list - including how to unsubscribe.
Keep this email in a safe place. You will need to refer to it at a later date.
Having completed the subscription process, you should then start receiving email list messages. How long this will take or how many emails you will receive depends very much on how busy, or big, the mailing list is. If you find that you are being swamped with incoming emails, then ask the other list members about possible options to reduce the problem. Many mailing lists have options that you can use to customise the amount, or manner in which you receive list messages, to suit your convenience.
Sending Mail To A Mailing List
When using an email list, remember to keep to the topics normally covered by the list itself. If you need to discuss something that is "off-topic", consider using normal private email rather than the list itself.
Unsubscribing
Add the text outlined in the confirmation email and send as usual. You should receive an email reply confirming your unsubscription.