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Create Your Own Genealogy Mailing List
Are you interested in creating your own mailing list?
You might be if you are conducting detailed research on a specific surname,
and are researching in a particular area of the world, have an interest
in atopic of research, or would like to encourage discussion on a genealogically-related
subject.
Mailing lists are topic-specific discussions which
are conducted via e-mail. When you subscribe to a mailing list, you
receive an e-mail copy of each message other subscribers send to that
list. Mailing lists encourage conversation on a variety of topics; a
comprehensive list of existing mailing lists can be found at the Genealogy
Resources on the Internet page at http.//users.aol.com/johnf14248/genmail.html.
Although you can create a mailing list through other sources, the most
popular spot for genealogists to house their mailing lists is Rootsweb.
Mailing list volume varies from the grandaddy of all lists,
Roots-L(which has 50,000+ messages per year) to smaller, highly specialized
groups which may have a message or two per week. Mailing lists are managed
by Listowners, who handle the maintenance duties, solve subscription problems,
answer questions, and sometimes (depending on the list) pre-screen messages.
While this may sound like a full-time job, listowners of moderate to small
lists get away with a minimum of time required to maintain the list in
good working order. Some mailing lists allow you to receive the messages
in "digest" form, i.e., all the messages from a certain time period (once
a day, three times a day, etc.) are gathered into one message, then sent
to you. Alist of subjects from each enclosed message is often placed at
the beginning of each digest message. Digests allow you to receive a great
many messages in one convenient package and can be especially useful for
people who have restrictions on the number of e-mails they receive.
Mailing Lists vs Newsgroups
How people prefer to access messages depends on many variables,
but as a rule, information which comes directly to your mailbox gets a
higher response rate than messages posted in a newsgroup. Some people
have limited access to Internet and are not able to utilize Usenet Newsgroups--
the answer to their problem is to receive newsgroups in mailing list format.
Most of the popular genealogy newsgroups are gated to a related mailing
list, allowing people to participate in a medium they might otherwise
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