Privacy Protection Mailing List - Frequently Asked Questions on Mailing Lists
Version 1.0, 2000-12-02 (revised version from 2003-01-24 -- MK)
Author: Martin Rost (ld32@privacyservice.org)
Structure
- 1. What is a Mailing List?
- 2. What are typical Expressions concerning the Use of Mailing Lists?
- 3. Where can I find a general List of Newsletters, Project Groups and Discussion Forums that have been set up as Mailing Lists?
- 4. What special Newsletters on Privacy Protection are there?
- 5. What Discussion Forums on Privacy Protection are there?
- 6. What Project Mailing Lists on Privacy Protection are there?
- 7. What are the typical Commands for typical Mailing List Software?
- 8. Can I maintain a Mailing List, too? How?
1. What is a Mailing List?
A mailing list is a kind of technology for the distribution of e-mails. Mailing lists can be distinguished according to their organizational form. The organizational form of a mailing list includes the access regulations for new members (open or closed or access only on demand), the distribution of the right to write among the members (one-to-many, some-to-many, many-to-many or general right to write) and an eventual examination of the contributions by a moderator before the further transmission (moderated or unmoderated).
Three organizational forms are typical for mailing lists:
- Newsletters are used as push medium for the distribution of announcements such as press releases, advertisements, information (typical organizational form: mostly open, one-to-many).
- Project mailing lists are used for the mail-supported interactive work of work groups (typical organizational form: closed, many-to-many, unmoderated).
- Discussion forums serve for the free expression of thoughts referring to a given topic (typical organizational form: open, many-to-many, mostly unmoderated).
2. What are typical Expressions concerning the Use of Mailing Lists?
For becoming a member of a mailing list, you first have to subscribe. The subscription procedure is automated with many open mailing lists by using the command subscribe. The command for withdrawing your e-mail address from a mailing list is "unsubscribe".
Generally you have to pay attention to distinguishing the two addresses of a mailing list. Firstly, there is (are) the address(es) for the administration of the mailing list; secondly, there is the address from which the contributions are sent.
The administrator responsible for the organization of a mailing list is called the Mailing List Owner. If anyone has problems with the use (or with the behavior of certain participants), they can turn to the owner. The mailing list owner's address can mostly be derived from the address of the mailing list itself, by inserting "_owner" between the name of the list and the rest of the address.
Mailing list members who only participate by reading, although they could also write, are called Lurkers in the network jargon, and active members are called Users.
Most mailing lists maintain a Policy which describes at least the aims of the mailing list and the organizational form. In many cases the policy includes additional notes on archives of and processing rights for the contributions, recommendations on the Netiqette and on the usage of certain file formats for the contributions to the mailing list (particularly of word processing).
3. Where can I find a general List of Newsletters, Project Groups and Discussion Forums that have been set up as Mailing Lists?
There is no sufficient answer to this question because newsletters and discussion forums on mailing list basis can easily be opened as well as be closed by any owner of a PC with an Internet account. Project groups usually do not communicate in public, so that interested outsiders cannot know about their existence. However, it could be useful to view two indexes that list open mailing lists that proved to be stable, some of them over a period of several years:
- Search Robot: http://www.lsoft.com/lists/listref.html
- Catalogue: http://www.liszt.com/
4. What special Newsletters on Privacy Protection are there?
The newsletters maintained by the Virtual Privacy Office:
-
Press Distribution List of German Privacy Institutions
Name: vpo-presse-list Organizational Form: open, moderated Address for Subscription: temporary not available
Newsletter of other Institutions:
-
q/depesche
Name: qdepesche Organizational Form: open, one-to-many Address for Subscription: http://www.quintessenz.org/q/depesche/
- EPIC - Electronic Privacy Information Center
Name: EPIC Organizational Form: open, one-to-many Address for Subscription: http://www.epic.org/alert/
5. What Discussion Forums on Privacy Protection are there?
The discussion forums maintained by the Virtual Privacy Office:
-
Privacy Protection Discussion Forum, German Language
Name: vpo-datenschutz-list@datenschutz.de Organizational Form: open, many-to-many, unmoderated Address for Subscription: temporary not available
Discussion Forums where also privacy topics are concerned, but which are not maintained by the Virtual Privacy Office:
-
FITUG - Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft
Name: majordomo@fitug.de Organizational Form: open, many-to-many, unmoderated Address for Subscription Mail: majordomo@fitug.de Address for Subscription Web: http://www.fitug.de
6. What Project Mailing Lists on Privacy Protection are there?
-
Special Mailing List for Project Partners of the Virtual Privacy Office
Name: vpo-member-list@datenschutz.de Organizational Form: closed (restricted to project partners within the VPO), many-to-many, unmoderated Address for Subscription: temporary not available -
Project Mailing List for Authors
Name: vpo-authors-list@datenschutz.de Organizational Form: closed (restricted to authors within in VPO), many-to-many, unmoderated Address for Subscription: temporary not available -
Freedom to Information Act Working Group Mailing List
Name: vpo-akif-list@datenschutz.de Organizational Form: closed (restricted to project partners within the VPO), many-to-many, unmoderated Address for Subscription: temporary not available -
BioTrusT Mailing List
Name: biotrust-list@datenschutz.de Organizational Form: closed (restricted to the BioTrusT project partners), many-to-many, unmoderated Address for Subscription: temporary not available -
Privacy Enhancing Technologies Testing Project (PETTEP) - General Mailing List
Name: vpo-pettepmain-list@privacyservice.org Organizational Form: closed (restricted to PETTEP working group members), many-to-many, unmoderated Address for Subscription: temporary not available
7. What are the typical Commands for typical Mailing List Software?
7.1. ezmlm
The Mailing List Software "Ezmlm" (http:/cr.yp.to/ezmlm.html) is used by the Virtual Privacy Office. The functionality of this mail server is different from that of most other mailing list servers. Commands to the server are not being written into the body of an e-mail but commands have to be send as integrated parts of the e-mail address. Insofar, experienced mailing list users who are used to the functionality of majordomo or listserv have to rethink (see the ezmlm-FAQ). The ezmlm works very fast, is able to handle particularly large amounts of data and can be called secure.
The Subscription in a mailing list administrated by ezmlm works in a way that the row of signs -subscribe is inserted between the name part of the mailing list and the rest of the address. The content of the mail and the subject are hereby not relevant. Subsequently, a request mail that is sent by the server for security purposes has to be replied.
The unsubscribe functionality works in the same way, only the row of signs -unsubscribe has to be inserted.
A Help text including a list of the applicable commands can be found by inserting
-help in the mailing list address.
(cp. example Privacy Protection Discussion Forum).
For the purpose of completeness, those mailing server's procedures are listed below which are not being used by the Virtual Privacy Office but which are generally useful to be known by all net users since they are very common.
7.2. majordomo
The majordomo Mailing list package ( http://www.greatcircle.com/majordomo/) is very common. (e.g. as part of the usual Linux distributions) and is suitable for middle-sized mailing lists with an average claim to comfort for users and administrators.
TheSubscription into a mailing list administrated by majordomo works as follows:
- Address mail to the mailing list server (begins mostly with "majordomo@?")
- Write into the body of the mail(subject is irrelevant):
SUBSCRIBE Name_of_Mailing_list first_name last_name
Subsequently, a request mail that is sent by the server for security purposes has to be replied. After that, you are a member of the mailing list.
The Unsubscription from a mailing list works as follows:
- Address mail to the mailing list server (begins mostly with "majordomo@?")
- Write into the body of the mail (subject is irrelevant):
UNSUBSCRIBE Name_of_Mailinglist
How to get a Help text with a list of the applicable commands
- Address mail to the mailing list server (begins mostly with "majordomo@?")
- Write into the body of the mail (subject is irrelevant):
help
7.3. Listserv
The listserv-Mailing list server ( http://www.lsoft.com) is very common particularly in the area of scientific mailing lists (Overview Germany: http://www.listserv.gmd.de). This software is probably the one with the highest performance (cf. manual: http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/userindex.html).
The Subscription into a mailing list administrated by Listserv works as follows:
- Address mail to the mailing list server (begins mostly with "listserv @?")
- Write into the body of the mail(subject is irrelevant):
SUBSCRIBE Name_of_Mailing_list first_name last_name
Subsequently, a request mail that is sent by the server for security purposes has to be replied. Then, you are a member of the mailing list.
The Unsubscription from a mailing list works as follows:
- Address mail to the mailing list server (begins mostly with "listserv@?")
- Write into the body of the mail(subject is irrelevant):
UNSUBSCRIBE Name_of_Mailing_list
How to get a Help text with a list of the applicable commands
- Address mail to the mailing list server (begins mostly with "listserv@?")
- Write into the body of the mail(subject is irrelevant):
help
7.4. /etc/aliases or .forward mechanisms
On a Unix system a user (or an alias user in the file /etc/aliases) can be maintained with which the incoming mails can be forwarded automatically to a list of e-mail addresses that have been entered into the .forward file by an administrator. This is the simplest variant of a mailing list and is suitable for smaller projects.
8. Can I maintain a Mailing List, too? How?
If a mailing list on a privacy topic is to be established, the setup can be requested at the Virtual Privacy Office (send mail to: listmaster@privacyservice.org).
If anyone wishes to maintain their own mailing list server, the deployment of a Linux computer which is connected to the internet is recommendable. All of the large Linux distributions (such as e.g. SuSE or Red Hat or Debian) contain the average-sized and easy to install majordomo application package. Combined with the mail transport agent qmail, the more effective ezmlm can be installed, just as the Virtual Privacy Office has deployed it.
