THE ESTABLISHMENT, CARE AND FEEDING OF A LISTSERV LIST

Robert E. Quinn and Peter M. Weiss

(c)1995 Reprinted by permission from Student Aid Transcript. Published by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

There are several issues that must be addressed before a new LISTSERV list can be established. First and foremost, one must identify the scope and content of the new list. What topic(s) will the list support? What are some topics that would be considered acceptable or unacceptable? Who will be the intended audience of the list?

Once the purpose of the list is well defined, you must determine that a list of the same topic, or very similar topic, does not already exist. This can be determined in several different ways. An excellent place to start is by searching NEW-LIST, a LISTSERV list devoted to archiving announcements of new lists. NEW-LIST is located at LISTSERV@NDSUVM1 or (LISTSERV@VM1.NODAK.EDU) and can be searched using standard LISTSERV search mechanisms. Other sources of established lists are various Usenet newsgroups, Web/Gopher sites, and the LISTSERV "List Global" command.

Once you are comfortable that the proposed new list is unique, the next step is to actually establish the list. To do so means finding a host site which runs the LISTSERV software (or something similar) and willing to support your new list. Then, you establish the various attributes of the list, build the foundation of the list, and announce its availability.

There are many sites around the world that operate list management software such as LISTSERV. LISTSERV is a brand name of list management software distributed by the company L-Soft Incorporated. There are several such brands of list management software, some of which are free, some of which operate on a personal computer. The most straight forward way to establish your list is to find a site that supports a list you are already familiar with and ask them to sponsor yours. In an ideal setting, that site is your own institution or company. If you are not fortunate enough to have close neighbors with the LISTSERV software, you could give consideration to licensing the software yourself, but you would need to coordinate this with your friendly neighborhood computer people for starters.

Having established the host site for your new list, you need to give some consideration toward the operational characteristics of the list, known as list "attributes" or operational keywords. Some LISTSERV software supports many available options for defining your list, and you as listowner will need to determine how you want it to function. Is the list to be an open subscription or a subscription by you, the owner? That is, do you intend to permit anybody to subscribe by themselves or would you rather potential subscribers contact you to be subscribed? Is the new list to be moderated by you the listowner? That is, are postings to the list by subscribers reviewed by the listowner prior to posting? Are the posted messages archived for future reference by the list membership and/or general public? There are a number of list attributes needing to be set by the listowner. It is recommended that you discuss each of them with some individual at the host site knowledgeable with LISTSERV processing.

An important document that goes along with list establishment is known as the "welcome message". In general, the welcome message is the acknowledgement received by new subscribers when they request to be subscribed to your list. The content of the welcome message will vary somewhat but usually contains general guidelines for using the list. It most always contains a statement of the general purpose of the list, how to unsubscribe, and who to contact for help with problems. It may also point to other files available via LISTSERV that may or may not be associated with your new list. User guides, frequently asked question (FAQ) files, and reference files are some examples. Not all lists utilize these files, but they have often proven useful to list subscribers, particularly the novice. They may also save you the time spent answering questions from the list membership.

Finally, the birth of your new list will need to be announced. The most common vehicle for doing so is via the very same NEW- LIST mentioned above. The NEW-LIST listowner has established a template for the announcement of new lists. You can obtain the template by sending the command GET NEW-LIST FORMAT to LISTSERV@NDSUVM1 (or LISTSERV@VM1.NODAK.EDU). The NEW-LIST owner can be contacted at NEW-LIST-Request@NDSUVM1 for assistance. Your announcement can also be sent to other lists with similar interests.

Following the announcement of the new list, you will likely want to drum up a little conversation once a few subscribers have come on board. Typically, your new subscribers will wait to learn what types of conversations are taking place on this new list once they have joined. Of course the list is NEW, and there are NO conversations yet taking place. Be prepared to get the ball rolling.

Being a new listowner, you will also want to be prepared for the amount of maintenance that accompanies list ownership. Perhaps as a subscriber to an existing list you have inferred that the role of the listowner is minimal. In some cases this might be true. In general, however, the casual subscriber sees only the postings made to the list from various other subscribers. The responsibilities of the listowner often lie behind the scenes in keeping the list up-and-running.

As the list continues to grow, you will want to be aware of the amount of maintenance required of you (and perhaps others) to support it. Your maintenance workload will tend to increase proportionately with the growth in number of subscribers to your list. On any given day, in general, a listowner will find himself or herself interpreting and resolving "bounced" mail, correcting address changes, moderating list discussions, and teaching the subscriber population points of electronic mail etiquette and the use of LISTSERV.

Far and above, the majority of the maintenance duties of the listowner are occupied by resolving "bounces". A "bounce" is loosely defined as the e-mail message unable to be delivered to its intended recipient and subsequently returned to the owner. Reasons for non-delivery vary. In some instances, e-mail is undeliverable due to a systems outage at the host recipient. In other cases, the intended recipient may have a full mailbox. Additionally, subscribers may leave their place of employment without unsubscribing from your list. Eventually their e-mail address is deactivated, becoming invalid, causing all attempted deliveries to bounce. The listowner must decide how s/he will manage these types of bounces. For example, you might adopt a policy whereby you contact the Postmaster at the failing site for help, and then suspend the subscription of the faulty subscriber. A bounce can be generated for each faulty subscriber, for each message posted to the list! It is easy to see how this would become an enormous task for the owner of a very active list with many subscribers.

Other duties of the listowner are not as individually taxing as the resolution of bounced mail. Most will agree that because the Internet is a constantly evolving and changing place, some lists tend to be a flurry of activity. People are subscribing and unsubscribing. Old mail systems are being replaced with new ones, often with accompanying minuscule but relevant changes of e-mail address. Many individuals are gaining access to the Internet for the first time. All this activity requires the listowner to assist individuals in becoming subscribed to the list, to help them when their address changes, and to constantly monitor the list traffic to assure that the list is being utilized in the manner in which it was defined.

Managing a LISTSERV list can be a rewarding and satisfying task. It provides the opportunity to meet and converse with people across the world. It typically gives you the chance to provide a needed service to a group of people with common interests. It is a task, however, that should be viewed as a commitment and not incidental as the term "other duties as assigned" would suggest.