E-Mail lists
These are forums of discussion which are run entirely through e-mail. For ESL teachers,
there are two biggies:
NETEACH-L: DISCUSSION
LIST: My favorite, since many queries and their answers are related to the
Internet. Click here to see some examples of
messages exchanged.
The TESL-L Mailing List:
This page explains how to subscribe to TESL-L. The longest-running of ESL lists, it has
various sublists with subscribers numbering in the thousands.
Watch it! These lists can
generate dozens of messages per day. When you subscribe, the system will send you a
message explaining how to unsubscribe. Save this message, and just in case, print it out
and put it into your safety deposit box. You will need it come the day when you want to
drop out and put an end to the deluge. If you're going on vacation and you won't be
checking your e-mail, unsubscribe yourself. We wouldn't want your inbox to get so full
that your system starts bouncing important messages.
Instead of diving in head first with a message that others might find obnoxious, you
should probably take a few days to see what kind of messages other people are posting.
Every list has its own habits and culture. If you do want to send a message right off, a
quick message introducing yourself as a new subscriber is a good way to make your presence
known without stepping on any toes.
Your
mission: Find a list that might be of interest to you through the list of lists. For example, if your hobby is
restoring an old Volkswagen that you need to find parts for, put VW as
your search parameter.
There is another type of discussion forum on Internet known as News or Newsgroup.
For this you need a news reader (nowadays included with most browsers) and instructions on
how to configure it. Here are a few of their characteristics:
- You don't need to subscribe; you simply go in and start reading the messages you're
interested in.
- There are virtually thousands of different newsgroups, ranging from teaching science to
elementary schoolchildren to forums whose members' common interest is a profound hate of
Barney the dinosaur.
- Being the anarchic system that it is, any nut case can amble in and spout whatever
nonsense pops into his/her head. Any information given in a newsgroup as being the gospel
truth should be taken with a grain of salt. Some newsgroups are mere flamefests where
people do nothing but hurl insults at each other.
To learn more about newsgroups, have a look at Newsgroup Netiquette
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