Thus users can, for example, limit communications to members of an organization to avoid grass roots lobbying expenditures or comply with FEC restrictions on federal electoral advocacy. Similarly, tracking the usage of e-mail for advocacy is simple. Organizations may count the number of messages they send, the number of e-mail addresses that receive messages, or the size of the files. B. Listserves Listserves are basically bulk e-mail. They are lists of e-mail addresses maintained on a computer that distributes messages among a group of recipients.
Users transmit messages to the host computer for distribution to everyone on the list.
However, the mechanics of subscribing to a listserve and posting messages are somewhat more complex, and people who are inexperienced with computers will need to spend some additional time to learn how to use a listserve at first. In addition, the organization that creates the list has additional technical and administrative burdens associated with operating it. Listserves are most effective for advocacy when communicating with a large group of individuals who share an interest in a common topic or have some other unifying attribute. Unlike e-mail, users do not need to know who these people are in advance since they can create a listserve to which interested people can subscribe. If the list is open to all subscribers, the organization will likely have to treat all communications on the list as communications to the general public.