To join in, you need a news reader. When e-mail is addressed to a listserv mailing list, it is automatically broadcast to everyone on the list. The result is similar to a newsgroup or forum, except that the messages are transmitted as email and are therefore available only to individuals on the list. Some listservs provide other facilities, such as retrieving files from archives and database searches. It may have announcements and event listings.
Newsletters typically have a small circulation.
Typically, users can also elect to go backwards through the ring of sites, skip a certain number at a time, visit sites randomly, or see a list of all the sites on the ring. I'm counting on you to tell me what's really going on. MS Office 98 is an extraordinary program and one no workstation should do without. And it keeps improving. I personally cannot at this point imagine trying to conduct business without them.