mailing list

mailing list
    n 1: a list of names and addresses to which advertising material
         is mailed
    

mailing list \mailing list\ n.
   A list of names and addresses to which advertising,
   solicitations of money, or other materials material sent in
   large quantities is mailed; -- it is usually used by
   comercial or charitable organizations. Mailing lists are
   often sold by organizations to other organizations, and are
   frequently used for targeted mailing, i. e., mailing to
   groups of people who are more likely htan the general
   population to respond as desired to the message in the mail.
   [WordNet 1.5 +PJC]
    

mailing list
 n.

   (often shortened in context to list)

   1. An {email} address that is an alias (or {macro}, though that word
   is never used in this connection) for many other email addresses. Some
   mailing lists are simple reflectors, redirecting mail sent to them to
   the list of recipients. Others are filtered by humans or programs of
   varying degrees of sophistication; lists filtered by humans are said
   to be moderated.

   2. The people who receive your email when you send it to such an
   address.

   Mailing lists are one of the primary forms of hacker interaction,
   along with {Usenet}. They predate Usenet, having originated with the
   first UUCP and ARPANET connections. They are often used for private
   information-sharing on topics that would be too specialized for or
   inappropriate to public Usenet groups. Though some of these maintain
   almost purely technical content (such as the Internet Engineering Task
   Force mailing list), others (like the `sf-lovers' list maintained for
   many years by Saul Jaffe) are recreational, and many are purely
   social. Perhaps the most infamous of the social lists was the
   eccentric bandykin distribution; its latter-day progeny, lectroids and
   tanstaafl, still include a number of the oddest and most interesting
   people in hackerdom.

   Mailing lists are easy to create and (unlike Usenet) don't tie up a
   significant amount of machine resources (until they get very large, at
   which point they can become interesting torture tests for mail
   software). Thus, they are often created temporarily by working groups,
   the members of which can then collaborate on a project without ever
   needing to meet face-to-face. Much of the material in this lexicon was
   criticized and polished on just such a mailing list (called
   `jargon-friends'), which included all the co-authors of Steele-1983.
    

mailing list

   <messaging> (Often shortened in context to "list") An
   {electronic mail address} that is an alias (or {macro}, though
   that word is never used in this connection) which is expanded
   by a {mail exploder} to yield many other e-mail addresses.
   Some mailing lists are simple "reflectors", redirecting mail
   sent to them to the list of recipients.  Others are filtered
   by humans or programs of varying degrees of sophistication;
   lists filtered by humans are said to be "moderated".

   The term is sometimes used, by extension, for the people who
   receive e-mail sent to such an address.

   Mailing lists are one of the primary forms of hacker
   interaction, along with {Usenet}.  They predate {Usenet},
   having originated with the first {UUCP} and {ARPANET}
   connections.  They are often used for private
   information-sharing on topics that would be too specialised
   for or inappropriate to public {Usenet} groups.  Though some
   of these maintain almost purely technical content (such as the
   {Internet Engineering Task Force} mailing list), others (like
   the "sf-lovers" list maintained for many years by Saul Jaffe)
   are recreational, and many are purely social.  Perhaps the
   most infamous of the social lists was the eccentric bandykin
   distribution; its latter-day progeny, {lectroids} and
   {tanstaafl}, still include a number of the oddest and most
   interesting people in hackerdom.

   Mailing lists are easy to create and (unlike {Usenet}) don't
   tie up a significant amount of machine resources (until they
   get very large, at which point they can become interesting
   torture tests for mail software).  Thus, they are often
   created temporarily by working groups, the members of which
   can then collaborate on a project without ever needing to meet
   face-to-face.

   There are several programs to automate mailing list
   maintenance, e.g. {Listserv}, {Listproc}, {Majordomo}.

   Requests to subscribe to, or leave, a mailing list should
   ALWAYS be sent to the list's "-request" address (e.g.
   [email protected] for the IETF mailing list).
   This prevents them being sent to all recipients of the list
   and ensures that they reach the maintainer of the list, who
   may not actually read the list.

   [{Jargon File}]

   (2001-04-27)
    

29 Moby Thesaurus words for "mailing list":
      PP, RD, RFD, airmail, book post, correspondence, direct mail,
      direct-mail selling, express, fourth-class mail, frank,
      halfpenny post, junk mail, letter post, letters, mail,
      mail-order selling, newspaper post, parcel post, post, post day,
      registered mail, rural delivery, rural free delivery, sea mail,
      seapost, special delivery, special handling, surface mail