List or Newsgroup:
Choosing the Right Tool for the Job

Two popular technologies for facilitating group communications over the Internet are mail lists (MLs) and usenet newsgroups (NGs). Each has its advantages, but there are significant differences that are important to consider to determine which best suits your purposes.

In general, NGs are best for group discussion or wide broadcast of announcements, while MLs make sense for urgent announcements that need to be pushed into recipients' mailboxes. However, because it is much easier to find a willing provider of a mail list server, many people end up using the wrong tool for the job, and experience great frustration just as you would trying to use a screwdriver to hammer nails, or a hammer to turn a screw.

Here's a comparison of the procedure of using an NG (with the trn newsreader for example) vs a typical experience (not trying to mention every possible exception) using an ML:

• If I would like to discuss nerfball in a usenet newsgroup, I type:

             \a nerfb
  

  and then choose one or more newsgroups from the matches offered. Next I see the subject list of existing messages, typically at least a month's worth on a well-administered server, so I know what has been discussed recently and which threads were most popular, or I can search the headers for a string match, and can then read the messages that interest me.

• If I instead choose to use an ML, I first must search for a related list. Once I find the nerf-discuss ML, I have to figure out where to send a subscription request, and then determine the format of the request, then compose and send the e-mail subscription request message. Some list-management software allows me to put a meaningful string in the subject line of my subscription request, some parses both subject & body, some do otherwise. The reply that comes back typically erases my subject, replaces it with a new one which may or may not be helpful, arrives with a surprise in the "From:" header, and fails to put a valid In-Reply-To: header in its reply. So, the message that comes back will (unless it was diverted by a spam filter) be somewhere in the jumble of my general mailbox, but not connected by thread to my request, and will miss my existing mail filters. Next, I have to confirm my request, to make sure some prankster didn't subscribe me.

• Further effort is required to cope with the ML: I manually edit my mail filtering file once I figure out what header can be depended on to be the same in every message, yet unique from the rest of my mail. Many people don't want the bother of setting up filtering, yet understandably find that loads of bulk mail landing in their inbox obscures the personal mail they want to see. They start wailing for "[nerf-discuss]" to be prepended to the subject line. When they finally get their way, all participants lose valuable subject line space, and may also find that mail systems break in various ways when replies do not begin with "Re:".

• Another popular discussion that arises from using an ML as a group discussion forum is that of "Reply-To munging". What does your e-mail client do when you try to reply to a message that was sent to a public list? Not necessarily what you prefer or expect. Read what's already been written.

• The problem of mailboxes flooded with bulk mail from MLs is worst for those with slow dialup connections, and those who are not equipped (with aptitudes or tools) to deal with the added complexity of managing multiple POP mailboxes: Expecting the arrival of an important message, they want to quickly check their mailbox, but when they dial their ISP they find that there is 15 minutes of bulk mail that has to be downloaded before they even know if the important message has arrived.

• On the ML, many frustrated "STOP SENDING ME THESE STUPID MESSAGES" and "Help, how do I get off this list" and "unsubscribe!" messages await you. This may happen because each list requires a different procedure to unsubscribe, and the participants cannot figure out what is necessary in this case, or the ML software may be buggy or misconfigured, and there really is no way to stop the messages from being sent. Sometimes list managers attempt to reduce the Help! pleas by tacking an extra footer on the end of every single message explaining how to unsubscribe. A couple keystrokes or clicks can unsubscribe from a newsgroup.

• Because so much junkmail floods the ML, some subscribers insist that only people who have subscribed should be allowed to send messages; others insist the list must be kept open. The argument resurfaces regularly.

• Often a person joins a forum because they have one question to ask, not because they wish to be a long-term participant; finding an archive of an ML and searching for their interest is too inconvenient, so they ask the same question as was asked yesterday & the day before by drop-in visitors. Unlike an NG, they are not offered the most recent messages when they subscribe, and the list may or may not be indexed by Google.

• Often a project will have 3 or more related MLs, divided into subtopics. Because messages seldom fall clearly into only one category, people CC: to multiple lists, and the replies may also continue the CC: of the original messages. The result is that if you are subscribed to more than one of the subtopic ML, you receive duplicates of every message in the thread in your mailbox. NGs have a mechanism designed exactly to meet this need; it's called "crossposting" and means that only one copy of the message is distributed; your newsreader will show it to you in the first NG you read, and then never again. Crossposting is a brilliant feature, which exactly meets a need that arises frequently in real-world discussions. Some people who do not understand how crossposting works protest against it, but if they would stop to think why the feature was implemented, and realize that the alternative is multiposted CCs, their objections would cease.

• When ML subscribers go away on vacation or for some other reason wish to suspend delivery, they have to figure out what's necessary for each list individually. There is no action required for NGs, because the messages stay on the server rather than being pushed into your mailbox. When you return from vacation, you can either skip or read the pending messages.

• Using NGs on a well-configured private server, you can easily cancel or supersede your own messages.

• If you change your e-mail address, it makes no difference to NG access. If for some reason you are forced to change newsservers that's a problem: Avoid getting locked-in to a server only available through your ISP or employer, because each server numbers articles differently.

• Mail reading software tends to be much less powerful and efficient for dealing with hundreds or thousands of threaded messages, though it is not inherently so. Using trn, with a single keypress I can skip all existing messages in this thread or subthread, or all messages with the same subject, and they will not be offered in future sessions. These commands can also be saved to a file with very few keystrokes, and applied to all future messages, as can commands for automatic selection or deselection by author and other criteria. Casual newsgroup participants can just use the default newsreading component associated with their browser, and may not even notice the different underlying technologies, but this generally lacks the efficiency of an optimized newsreader.

• The main reason people start MLs to use as discussion forums is that many providers offer this service at no cost other than the nuisance and insult of being subjected to irrelevant advertising added to each message. But because it is easy and free, it is a very common choice. It is a pity that more providers do not offer easy, low-cost NG services. Something that should be considered more than it is, is the use of an existing usenet newsgroup, if the subject you wish to discuss is within the formal charter or established informal guidelines of the group and would be of interest to current participants of the NG. In recent years, gmane.org has been providing a free service which subscribes to existing MLs and then offers the content via the gmane newsserver.