Pennsylvania College of Technology
Dr. Ed Vavra
 
What is a Listserver?

    If you are not familiar with listservers, you probably should look into the thousands of them that are available on the net -- on every subject imaginable. A listserver is simply a computer program, set up by someone on the net, to manage a discussion group. The person (or organization) who sets it up usually designates a topic and then invites people to "subscribe." Subscribing consists of sending an e-mail indicating that you want to be a member. Once a member, you receive copies of all the messages sent to the "server." When you send a message (or respond to someone else's), your message is sent to everyone else who has subscribed. Listservers are thus discussion groups on various topics.

      A "thread" from a listserver is a series of messages which contain the same (or a similar) topic in the "Subject" line of the message. In the threads reproduced here, lines preceded by < or > are from a previous message which is being responded to. In some cases, I missed the beginning of a thread, but I usually try to get as much of it as I can. Copying threads is time-consuming, so I just copy the message area. In many cases, writers include their names there, so their names are reproduced here. Other writers do not.

     Although you may want to join listservers about your hobby (or hobbies), more than anything else, you want to look for listservers in your career field. You can get a lot of information -- and make a lot of contacts -- from such a listserver. But be careful! The best idea is to begin by just reading messages. Get a sense of what is going on, and who is saying what. Listservers are democratic -- anyone can write almost anything, and every subscriber can see what you write. Some members of the listserver may be very influential -- they may even have the power to get you a good job. But if you send a lot of messages that make you sound like a know-it-all, or if you ask a lot of stupid questions, you will get a bad reputation. Think before you write.

     To find out more about listservers, visit the following: