Lets agree, no spamming and no griping about spamming. That's probably true, but it destroys all the fun, and there's little chance that people are going to adhere to that suggestion. And the reason is rather obvious - because we love spam. A couple of industrious students thought of an ingenious, albeit comic, method of combatting these exasperating posts. A web page about the newsgroup , as well as a web based FAQ on the list are a pleasure to read.
People join online mailing lists out of a common interest.
Just about every conceivable sort of group exists, and new ones spring up all the time. A number of lists exist in Israel, each for a particular reason and purpose. Il-board is for the discussion of computer related issues and problems. Il-talk is for anything that anyone could conceivably want to talk about. Presumably, list members know and understand the distinction.