Discussion lists provide an online forum for discussion. Usually, any subscriber can post messages to the list. When one subscriber posts an interesting message, other subscribers respond back to the list, and all the subscribers can read the ongoing exchange. For discussion lists to be effective, the list manager must establish rules for posting, including appropriate topics and styles. For example, if the finance committee at a church wanted to conduct business by e-mail between meetings, they could establish a closed mailing list and allow only committee members to subscribe.
Some lists maintain archives , files that contain all the messages posted to the list.
The archives of some lists are accessible via a Web page, which may even let you search for messages by author, date, or keyword. As a list subscriber, you have some options , too. Individual messages are sent by the list server as subscribers post them. If you receive messages individually, there's usually little delay before you receive the message. If you'd prefer to read your mailing list messages together, and you use Eudora, Netscape Messenger, Eudora, or another e-mail program that includes filters , you can set up a filter so that all the messages from the mailing list are sorted into a separate folder.