Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet

RNET MAI

to compile a periodic "digest" mailed to subscribers. Given the number of newsgroups, why would anybody bother with a mailing list? Even on Usenet, there are some topics that just might not generate enough interest for a newsgroup; for example, the Queen list, which is all about the late Freddie Mercury's band. And because a moderator decides who can participate, a mailing list can offer a degree of freedom to speak one's mind (or not worry about net.weenies) that is not necessarily possible on Usenet. Several groups offer anonymous postings - only t

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to be added to the list. Include your full e-mail address just in case something happens to your mess

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ion of messages on the list. In many cases, it also maintains indexes and archives of past postings in a given discussion group, which can be handy if you want to get up to speed with a discussion or just search for some information related to it. Many Bitnet discussion groups are now "translated" into Usenet form and carried through Usenet in the bit.listserv hierarchy. In general, it's probably better to read messages through Usenet if you can. It saves some storage space on your host system's hard drives. If 50 people subscribe to the same Bitnet list, that means 50 copies of each message get stored on the system; whereas if 50 people read a Usenet message, that's still only one message that needs storage on the sys

v@miami

you can e-mail the listserver without adding ".bitnet" to the end. Always leave the "subject:" line blank in a me

re "group" is the list name and "Your Name" is your f

iscontinue a group, for example:

ll available Bitnet discussion groups.

u can use with a listserver, such as commands for

sage (and you can use one or all of them). If you want to

@bitnic.

important differences from Usenet. First, when you want to post a message for others to read in the discussion group,

@miami

e). The second difference relates to sending an e-mail message to the author of a particular posting. Usenet newsreaders such as rn and nn let you do this with one key. But if you hit your R key to respond to a discussion-group message, your message will go to the listserver, and from there to everybody else on the list! This can prove embarrassing to you and annoying to others. To make sure your message

-LIST Y

o first rate for help on questions about all major computer networks and ho

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e former as bit.listserv.new-list; the latter as bit