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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>mailing list</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../M.html" title="M"/><link rel="previous" href="mailbomb.html" title="mailbomb"/><link rel="next" href="main-loop.html" title="main loop"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">mailing list</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="mailbomb.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">M</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="main-loop.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="mailing-list"/><dt xmlns="" id="mailing-list"><b>mailing list</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> (often shortened in context to <span class="firstterm">list</span>)</p></dd><dd><p> 1. An <a href="../E/email.html"><i class="glossterm">email</i></a> address that is an alias (or
<a href="macro.html"><i class="glossterm">macro</i></a>, though that word is never used in this
connection) for many other email addresses. Some mailing lists are simple
<span class="firstterm">reflectors</span>, redirecting mail sent to
them to the list of recipients. Others are filtered by humans or programs
of varying degrees of sophistication; lists filtered by humans are said to
be <span class="firstterm">moderated</span>. </p></dd><dd><p> 2. The people who receive your email when you send it to such an
address.</p></dd><dd><p>Mailing lists are one of the primary forms of hacker interaction,
along with <a href="../U/Usenet.html"><i class="glossterm">Usenet</i></a>. They predate Usenet, having
originated with the first UUCP and ARPANET connections. They are often
used for private information-sharing on topics that would be too
specialized for or inappropriate to public Usenet groups. Though some of
these maintain almost purely technical content (such as the Internet
Engineering Task Force mailing list), others (like the
&#8216;sf-lovers&#8217; list maintained for many years by Saul Jaffe) are
recreational, and many are purely social. Perhaps the most infamous of the
social lists was the eccentric <tt class="systemitem">bandykin</tt> distribution; its latter-day progeny,
<tt class="systemitem">lectroids</tt> and <tt class="systemitem">tanstaafl</tt>, still include a number of the
oddest and most interesting people in hackerdom.</p><p>Mailing lists are easy to create and (unlike Usenet) don't tie up a
significant amount of machine resources (until they get very large, at
which point they can become interesting torture tests for mail software).
Thus, they are often created temporarily by working groups, the members of
which can then collaborate on a project without ever needing to meet
face-to-face. Much of the material in this lexicon was criticized and
polished on just such a mailing list (called &#8216;jargon-friends&#8217;),
which included all the co-authors of Steele-1983.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="mailbomb.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../M.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="main-loop.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">mailbomb </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> main loop</td></tr></table></div></body></html>