MIS 202 LISTSERV


Introduction  Joining  Sending  Commands


Please be sure to remember to UNSUBSCRIBE yourself from the list after the course is completed!


Fundamentals of LISTSERV Use

The LISTSERV operates through ordinary E-mail messages sent to special addresses. There are two addresses associated with any list:

  1. The list address: any message that is sent to the list address will then be re-broadcast ("reflected") to every one of the participating people.

  2. The LISTSERV address: any message that is sent to the LISTSERV address will be interpreted as a command by the LISTSERV software (e.g., to subscribe or unsubscribe the sender).

The LISTSERV software being used for the MIS 202 discussion list ignores the content of the E-mail message's Subject header. You may choose to use a subject, but what you type will have no influence on the outcome of sending the message. For messages that are being sent for re-broadcast to the participants, it is nice to use a reasonably terse descriptive subject. For messages that are LISTSERV commands, it is a good habit to use the basic command verb (e.g., "unsubscribe") as the subject.


Joining the list

Using your usual E-mail environment, construct a message addressed to

listserv@ouvaxa.cats.ohiou.edu

If you are using OAK, you may choose to leave the ".cats.ohiou.edu" off of the address, since OAK is in the same subdomain.

The message contents should consist of the following two lines:

subscribe mis202rp
END

The indentation shown above is for clarity in presentation here, do not indent those lines in your message.

If your E-mail system does not automatically append a signature to your messages, then you could leave off the second line in the contents of your message, so that it is just

subscribe mis202rp

The function of the "END" is to prevent the LISTSERV software from becoming confused by trying to interpret your signature as commands.


Sending Messages to all List Participants

Using your regular E-mail environment, construct your message, addressing it to:

mis202rp@ouvaxa.cats.ohiou.edu

If you are using OAK, you may choose to leave the ".cats.ohiou.edu" off of the address, since OAK is in the same subdomain.

Remember that you should choose and type in a subject that is descriptive but not too wordy.

Remember that with many E-mail systems, a Reply to a list message will be going back to the list address, and therefore will be re-broadcast to everyone on the list, not just to the author of the message that you are responding to. With other E-mail systems the reverse may be true. If you want to respond to an LISTSERV message, check the To: and CC: headers before you actually send it!


Sending Commands to the LISTSERV Software

One message may contain multiple requests. For Archive information the "[", and "]" are required. 
HELP                     - to get a help file
UNSUBSCRIBE mis202rp     - to remove yourself from the list
SEND/LIST mis202rp       - to get a list of current subscribers
DIRECTORY [mis202rp]     - to get a listing of all archives
SEND [mis202rp]file.txt  - to get the specified file 
LIST                     - to get a list of other lists
END                      - to ignore all further lines (signature)

The file "[mis202rp]archive.txt" is the archive of the current month's activities. The "DIRECTORY" command will evoke a message that lists all available archives. The naming convention for previous months' archives should be obvious on inspection of the directory listing.


Return to MIS 202 Announcements Page

Dick Piccard revised this file (http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~piccard/mis300/listserv.html) on August 27, 1998.

Please E-Mail comments or suggestions to "piccard@ohio.edu".