Listservs can be a powerful tool for communication. Listservs are email-based discussions around a specific topic. There are dozens of listservs related to education. Some are quite general (such as the MDK-12 list for Maryland teachers) and some are quite specific (such as IASEE-L for discussions of solar energy education). At its best, a listserv is a place to discuss important issues around a topic with others who are interested in the topic. At its worst, a listserv is a place for bickering, off-topic and personal communication, junk mail, and distribution of urban legends and hoaxes.
Actually, you never know what you will find until you join a listserv. Each listserv is different in numbers of subscribers, quantities of messages, tone of the contributors, tolerance for off-topic discussion, etc. In many cases, you will find experts and novices interacting, answering each others' questions, and learning from one another. You will probably find a few people who dominate the discussion. In technical listservs, you are likely to find many people asking questions and a few self-proclaimed experts (sometimes they are really experts and sometimes they are not) giving answers. In less technical listservs, several people participate in the discussion but many more are rarely heard from. It is OK to read messages on a listserv and never write a message. Those who do this are called "lurkers." You might find that a handful of people are writing messages while dozens or hundreds or thousands are lurking.
Anywhere from none to 100 per day; it depends on the list. Some lists are inactive. The list might exist, and it might have many subscribers, but no one might be talking. Other lists are quiet and will generate a few messages per month. Moderate lists (the lists that most people stick with) generate a few messages per day. Busy lists can have 50 to 100 messages per day. Since lists are changing communities, the number of messages on any given list can vary from time to time. An inactive list might suddenly spring to life if someone asks a question. An active list might slow down, perhaps as some of the more talkative people leave the list.
Listserv stand for list server. It is actually a brand name owned by the company L-Soft. However, like the names Kleenex, Scotch tape, and Xerox, Listserv has become somewhat generic (all those companies would dispute this and have worked very hard to maintain their registered trademarks). Listserv is actually the server software that runs the list (keeping track of subscribers, distributing messages to subscribers, etc.). Other popular software includes Listproc and Majordomo. You can buy software to run a list on your own computer (assuming your computer is always on and connected to the Internet) or you can use software provided on large servers (most colleges and universities have a server for operating lists). In general, when you see the term "Listserv," you can assume it refers generically to all email mailing lists, but to be technically accurate, it really only refers to email mailing lists that use the software created by L-Soft (just as Kleenex does not refer to Puffs or Scott tissues). So, Listserv doesn't have an "e" on the end because it is a brand name, and that is what the company that created it decided to call it.
I have created two lists of listservs that will help you find an interesting list to join. The list of Educationally Related Listservs contains a long list of lists in alphabetical order. It includes brief descriptions and instructions for subscribing. The problem with this list is that it is hit-or-miss. The lists listed there may be active or inactive. Some of them may no longer exist (let me know if you attempt to subscribe to one and find it doesn't exist so I can remove it from the list). The list of Active Listservs contains lists to which my students have successfully subscribed in the last few years. This list contains the name of the list, a brief description of the list, and the last time someone has reported to me that the list was active. Since this list does not have instructions for subscribing, you can use the longer Educationally Related Listservs document to find instructions. Just because a list is not on the Active Listservs list does not mean it is not active; it just means that none of my students have subscribed to it over the last few years.
Since Listservs (using the term generically) are run by different software, there isn't one set of instructions for subscribing to a listserv. Generally, you send an email message to a computer that contains the command SUBSCRIBE, the name of the list to which you want to subscribe, and your name. For example, to subscribe to the AERA listserv I would send the following message:
Note a few important things about this message:
After you send the message to subscribe to a list, there are five possible things that can happen:
Occasionally, when you send an email of any kind, nothing happens. This is rare, but it can happen. Usually, this means that some computer has received the message but didn't know what to do with it.
If the list no longer exists, or it has moved to another computer, your subscription request might bounce. The email you get back will tell you that the message cannot be delivered. Sometimes, it might tell you to where the list has moved, but it is more likely that the it will just say that the list (or the computer that used to house the list) no longer exists.
Some lists are closed. I run several lists for specific groups of people (including lists for students in my classes and lists for the Education Department at Loyola College). These lists are closed. If you tried to subscribe to one of them, you would get a message back telling you that the list is closed and your request has been forwarded to the list administrator.
Often, you will be put on the list, and you will be sent a welcome message. Save this. It will generally have instructions for the list, including how to get off the list. Once you have been sent the welcome message, you are on the list, and you should receive messages from the list and be able to send messages to the list.
The most likely thing that will happen is that you will get a request to confirm you subscription. This prevents someone from signing up someone else for a list (sorry, you can't sign up your enemies for a bunch of high-volume lists). When you get this message, there will be information about how to confirm your subscription. Usually, you have to do this within 48 hours, so don't sign up for a list and then check your email a week later. If you do, the confirmation will have expired and you'll have to subscribe again. Normally what you do is reply to the confirmation message and put OK in the body of the message. If that doesn't work, follow the instructions in the confirmation message carefully.
Never send a message to a list saying, "Please get me off this list." Remember, even if only a few people are sending messages to the list, there could be hundreds or thousands of lurkers. You don't want to annoy thousands of people. Instead, follow the instructions sent to you in the welcome message. Usually, you will send an email message to the same place you sent the subscription message with the body of the message being: unsubscribe <name of list>. For example, to get off the AERA list, I would send a message to listserv@asu.edu with the body containing:
unsubscribe AERA
If you find the right list, it can be a wonderful and enriching experience. Teaching can be isolating, and a listserv can provide a way to communicate with other teachers in the same subject, same grade level, or with the same interests. Find a list and communicate, and if it doesn't work out, get off that list and find another one!
This page was prepared by Dr. David M. Marcovitz.
Last Updated: October 11, 2001