cbbqa mailing list

The Association maintains a mailing list for the benefit and use of its members and friends.  This article describes specific information about the Association's mailing list as well as general information about how mailing lists work, terminology, and how they compare with forums, bulletin boards, and newsgroups.

Subscribers

The mailing list is open to all cbbqa members, prospective members and those interested in barbecue.  The mailing list is a private list, which means that the Association reserves the right to permit or terminate subscriptions.

At present, only about one-third of cbbqa members are subscribed to the mailing list.  The majority either are unaware of the list's existence, do not have a personal email account, or do not use their email accounts often enough to justify their subscription.  A few hesitate to subscribe because they do not know the list's volume of messages.

List volume

The cbbqa mailing list receives an average of between five and ten messages per day, but this varies.  On some days, no messages are posted, while on others there are more than ten new messages.

Those members who are concerned that their inboxes will fill with emails from the cbbqa mailing list are encouraged to subscribe for a few days to see if they are comfortable with the volume and quality of posts.  

All subscribers are encouraged to learn how to use their email programs (Outlook Express, Netscape, etc.), because all modern email programs have "filters" that, when set up, will automatically identify all incoming email from the cbbqa mail list and will move it from the general inbox to a special directory (or folder), perhaps marked "cbbqa_list".  The subscriber's regular email inbox will not fill with any posts from the cbbqa mailing lists, and the subscriber may let these posts accumulate for a few days and then read them at leisure.  (Anyone who needs assistance in configuring their email filters should contact us, and we will help you get it set up correctly.)

To join (or subscribe)

The Association's mailing list is hosted by Yahoo.  To subscribe (or "join") the cbbqa mailing list, send a blank email to:

cbbqa-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

A "blank email" means that there should be nothing in the email Subject Line and nothing in the email message Body.  

The addresses to send email to post a message to the list, reach the list owner, etc. are as follows:

The list knows the subscriber

Some would like to understand how the list knows the identity of the subscriber, if the subscriber sends only a blank email to subscribe.  If there is nothing in the subject line or body of the email message, how does the list know who wants to subscribe.

This is how it works.  When an blank email is sent by a subscriber, the email always includes information in the email header, which is often not visible to the user.  The email header contains the email address of the sender.  When the computer at Yahoo receives an email sent to the address "cbbqa-subscribe@yahoo.com", the computer looks at the header and finds the email address of the sender.  Then the computer adds the sender's email address into the cbbqa mailing list.

Subscribe with correct email address

A couple of errors should be avoided in subscribing to the cbbqa mailing list or to any other list.  

First and most importantly, the subscriber must make sure to subscribe using the same email address that will be used to receive the email.  For example, some users have two or more email addresses:  an email address for business use, and another one for personal use.  If the user wants cbbqa mailing list messages to be sent to the personal email address, then the user must send the cbbqa-subscribe message from that same personal email address.  If this is confusing, email us so that we can help.

Second, sometimes users begin to receive duplicate messages from the mailing list.  This happens when a user changes an email address by notifying Yahoo of the new address but does not unsubscribe from the old one. 

About email capitalization

Email addresses and mailing list addresses (which are actually just email addresses) are not case sensitive.  This means that there are no rules for capitalization.  For example, the email address cbbqa@yahoogroups.com is exactly the same as the email address CBBQA@YahooGroups.com -- the capitalization has no effect.

On websites, the rules are more complicated.  On the basic website address, capitalization does not matter.  For example, www.cBBQa.com and www.cbbqa.com (and any similar variation in capitalization) are exactly the same -- the capitalization has no effect.  BUT, for everything after the basic website address, capitalization does matter.  For example, the complete address of this web page is:

www.cbbqa.com/notes/MailingList.html

If the capitalization of everything to the right of the first slash ("/") is not exactly the same, then the server will report "page not found" error.  In other words, to reach this page, the capitalization of "/notes/MailingList.html" must be exact.

YahooGroups

The Association's mailing list is hosted by YahooGroups (a part of Yahoo).  YahooGroups retains the "archives" and provides other services.

Yahoo permits subscribers to include certain personal details about themselves, which may be made available to others.  For example, if you subscribed as "hank222@cbbqa.com".  When this subscriber posts a message to the mailing list, some subscribers may not know that the poster is actually Hank Aaron.  If you choose, you can make this information available to others by updating my "personal profile" at Yahoo.  

Making this information available to others is completely optional and is not required to be a subscriber to the cbbqa mailing list.  However, if a user does not object to others know the user's name, for example, then the user can enter this and similar information at  cbbqa YahooGroups website, where the user will begin by registering as a new user and receiving an ID (simply follow the steps at the YahooGroups website).

How mailing lists work

For those unfamiliar with how a mailing list words, it is very much like ordinary email.  Mailing list email is sent and received as ordinary email.  However, when you "post" a mailing list message, it is sent automatically as email to all recipients who are those "subscribed" to the list.  Thus, someone who "posts" a mailing list message does not have to know the email addresses of each of the recipients ("subscribers").  All information about the subscribers' names and email addresses are retained in complete secrecy by the mailing list server.

There are several advantages to mailing lists over email.  Recipients ("subscribers") can add and remove their names at any time.  For example, if they are going to be on vacation for two weeks and do not want their email inboxes to be full when they return, they can deactivate their subscription by logging onto the mailing list server.  A subscriber may change his or her email address, but the subscriber has to notify only the mailing list server (done automatically on the Internet) rather than worrying about notifying all the other subscribers individually.

Forums, bulletin boards and newsgroups

There are technical differences between mailing lists on the one hand and forums, bulletin boards and newsgroups (which have almost the same meaning) on the other.  All are methods for members of a group to communicate with one another.  

The difference is that, in a mailing list, each individual message is sent via email to each subscriber.  When the subscriber downloads email, it includes all the messages from the mailing list.  

In a forum, bulletin board, or newsgroup, the messages are not sent to each subscriber but instead are posted to a common site (called the forum, board or newsgroup), which can be accessed by each subscriber.  Therefore, the subscriber has to go to the site to read the messages:  they are not automatically downloaded as mail.

In practical terms, this means that a subscriber does not get as much email from a forum, board or newsgroup.  On the other hand, many find it easier to keep up with the mailing list.  In any case, the term "list" is often used to include all these forms of group communication.

Mailing list terminology

Like so many other parts of the Internet, mailing lists have their own "lingo" and use their own terminology.  Many of mailing list terms were borrowed from Usenet (a sister service of the Internet, similar to email).  Some of the words which are commonly used in discussing mailing lists are:  

• Mailing list (sometimes called "mail list" or just "list"):  the email-based system of sending messages to many people

• Subscriber:  an email recipient who "joins" a mailing list.  There is no cost for "joining" or "subscribing" to any list, include the cbbqa mailing list.

• Post (verb):  to send an email message to the list.  (Can also be used as a noun to mean an email message sent to a mailing list.)

• Public or Private Mailing List:  a public mailing list is open to subscription by anyone, and a private mailing list is restricted to subscribers who are approved by the moderator (see below).  The cbbqa mailing list is a private list.

• Moderated or Unmoderated:  a moderated mailing list means that a list moderator (defined below) permits someone to subscribe to the list and may review messages before they are distributed to the subscribers at large.  An unmoderated list has no such moderator, as a result of which discussions tend to wander off topic

• List Owner:  the person who controls ("owns") the mailing list.  The cbbqa mailing list is owned by the Association, whose President is identified as the owner.

• List Moderator:  the persons who control the operation of the mailing list, including whether to permit a person to subscribe, whether to ban ("unsubscribe") someone, and the like.

• Archives:  all past posts to the mailing list, organized in several ways (by subscriber, by subject, etc.).  The cbbqa mailing list maintains an archive which is accessible to the public.

• Thread:  the subject line of a series of emails.  

• Spam:  unsolicited commercial email.  The cbbqa mailing list prohibits any subscriber from posting any spam.  Any subscriber who spams the list will be unsubscribed.

• Flame:  an inappropriate email which personally attacks or inflames the anger of others.  The cbbqa mailing list prohibits flames -- anyone who flames another will be warned the first time and then unsubscribed.

• OT:  an abbreviation of "off topic".  When a subscriber posts a message about a subject that is beyond the limits of the mailing list's purpose, the subscriber should include "OT" at the beginning of the subject line, so that recipients who do not have the time or interest in reading the message will be able to identify and skip it.

• Netiquette:  The term, derived from "etiquette", to describe the "rules of good behavior" for mailing list subscribers and other Internet users.  Posting adult jokes is a breach of netiquette on the cbbqa mailing list but may be perfectly appropriate on an adult-jokes mailing list.  

For more information, or if you had any questions, contact us by email.

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