where "list" is the name of the mailing list and "address" is the moderator's e-mail address, asking to be added to the list. Include your full e-mail address just in case something happens to your message's header along the way, and ask, if you're accepted, for the address to mail messages to the list.
5.2 BITNET
As if Usenet and mailing lists were not enough, there are Bitnet "discussion groups" or "lists." Bitnet is an international network linking colleges and universities, but it uses a different set of technical protocols for distributing information from the Internet or Usenet. It offers hundreds of discussion groups, comparable in scope to Usenet newsgroups. One of the major differences is the way messages are distributed. Bitnet messages are sent to your mailbox, just as with a mailing list. However, where mailing lists are often maintained by a person, all Bitnet discussion groups are automated — you subscribe to them through messages to a "listserver" computer. This is a kind of robot moderator that controls distribution of messages on the list. In many cases, it also maintains indexes and archives of past postings in a given discussion group, which can be handy if you want to get up to speed with a discussion or just search for some information related to it. Many Bitnet discussion groups are now "translated" into Usenet form and carried through Usenet in the bit.listserv hierarchy. In general, it's probably better to read messages through Usenet if you can. It saves some storage space on your host system's hard drives. If 50 people subscribe to the same Bitnet list, that means 50 copies of each message get stored on the system; whereas if 50 people read a Usenet message, that's still only one message that needs storage on the system. It can also save your sanity if the discussion group generates large numbers of messages. Think of opening your e-mailbox one day to find 200 messages in it — 199 of them from a discussion group and one of them a "real" e-mail message that's important to you. Subscribing and canceling subscriptions is done through an e- mail message to the listserver computer. For addressing, all listservers are known as "listserv" (yep) at some Bitnet address. This means you will have to add ".bitnet" to the end of the address, if it's in a form like this: listserv@miamiu. For example, if you have an interest in environmental issues, you might want to subscribe to the Econet discussion group. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to
listserv@miamiu.bitnet
Some Bitnet listservers are also connected to the Internet, so if you see a listserver address ending in ".edu", you can e-mail the listserver without adding ".bitnet" to the end. Always leave the "subject:" line blank in a message to a listserver. Inside the message, you tell the listserver what you want, with a series of simple commands:
subscribe group Your Name To subscribe to a list, where "group" is the list name and "Your Name" is your full name, for example: subscribe econet Henry Fielding
unsubscribe group Your Name To discontinue a group, for example: unsubscribe econet Henry Fielding
list global This sends you a list of all available Bitnet discussion groups. But be careful — the list is VERY long!
get refcard Sends you a list of other commands you can use with a listserver, such as commands for retrieving past postings from a discussion group.
Each of these commands goes on a separate line in your message (and you can use one or all of them). If you want to get a list of all Bitnet discussion groups, send e-mail to