Re: listserve

>
>Does anyone know what it takes to set up and maintain an e-mail list,
>like a listserve?
>
>--
>Karen Stafford
>Noteworthy Web Designs
>http://www.noteworthydesigns.com
>
>

Depends on what you want from your listserve, Karen.

I have several.  A few that just collect names so I can write back and say 
"the site's changed and look what's new there",   in which case its' a piece 
of cake.  I just have a ColdFusion CFMAIL app that sends the text as an 
email to the members of the list. It automatically adds the top and tail of 
the email for me ("this email is never sent unsolicited etc etc")  That 
takes no work at all, except for writing the email text once in a while.  
Subscribers can add themselves and take themselves off the list. Since 
they're not sending anything to the list, there's no moderation involved, no 
supervision nothing.  I dont even filter out competitors from the list.  I 
just assume when I'm writing that there are a few competitors in the list 
and temper my remarks accordingly.

At the other end of the scale is this listserve, which would seem to be 
fairly labour intensive.  Every email is read by a list guide, and since 
it's working 24/7, you have to have list guides spread all over the globe 
(or at least all over the clock anyway even if they're not geographically 
spread).

Majordomo is very easy to operate.  Once it's set up , you get a list of the 
commands, and let subscribers log on and off.   It's not much work, or its a 
whole lot of work, depending on how much you want to intrude on the freedom 
of expression of the participants.  I've been on lists where there is almost 
no moderation no matter what, and here in the HWG, where the slightest 
deviation from the rules will get your knuckles slapped.

Operating the listserve is almost always by sending an email in the form 
<command><password><listname>  and majordomo does it all for you.  Just like 
subscribing and unsubscribing to this list.  By the same process you can set 
up administrative functions, put people on and off moderate status,  put 
them on and off the list, get the list of names,  etc etc.

The most active one I am involved with is with a site that has 40,000 unique 
visits a month, and there are dozens of joins and unsubscribes a day - and 
no intervention is required from the web team at all, apart from sending out 
a message every fortnight telling them what's new and what's going on at the 
organisation.

Hope this helps,

Mike Kear
AFP Web Development
Windsor, NSW, Australia
http://www.afp.zip.com.au



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