Subscription like a Listserv
February 1, 2015 5:06 AM Subscribe
A number of us has finished a 6 month Artist Residency program. Most of us would like to stay in touch in the future so we can let each other know if we`re having a show or other information. I was thinking a llistserv might be the best way to do this as I think the actual email addresses can be stripped leave that private from others.
I would also expect previous and future alumni to participate.
They are not tech savy, but I described it as a `Subscription`. They email a subscribe to the serve, and maybe once a week the would get a published email with all the emails sent to the service.
L-Soft might be an option, but I thought to ask everyone one their thoughts. I don`t want to maintain this after it`s setup.
I heard about reflectors, google groups and google lists. I gues I want the interface to be super easy. I`m on a list serv at Lsoft, and I simply can give comands in the Subject line such as `Suscribe`or Ùnsuscribe`
I would also expect previous and future alumni to participate.
They are not tech savy, but I described it as a `Subscription`. They email a subscribe to the serve, and maybe once a week the would get a published email with all the emails sent to the service.
L-Soft might be an option, but I thought to ask everyone one their thoughts. I don`t want to maintain this after it`s setup.
I heard about reflectors, google groups and google lists. I gues I want the interface to be super easy. I`m on a list serv at Lsoft, and I simply can give comands in the Subject line such as `Suscribe`or Ùnsuscribe`
In my experience, Yahoo Groups is one of the things that Yahoo still does well. Better than Google Groups, because ironically it's more-tightly integrated with things like a calendar, files section, etc. just in case you need such things.
posted by jozxyqk at 5:26 AM on February 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by jozxyqk at 5:26 AM on February 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
With all due respect for the grand history of the Internet, "listserv" and mailing lists are pretty old school at this point; no one I know under 30 uses them. If you do want to go that route check out groups.io, a new implementation. Google Groups and Yahoo Groups are both awful and outdated.
Modern alternatives to email lists are Facebook groups or maybe a Slack Group. Neither offer much in the way of privacy.
posted by Nelson at 5:54 AM on February 1, 2015
Modern alternatives to email lists are Facebook groups or maybe a Slack Group. Neither offer much in the way of privacy.
posted by Nelson at 5:54 AM on February 1, 2015
With all due respect to Nelson, there are a few listservs still out there in use by people both under and over 30, usually for professional organizations. I know some are on yahoo groups, and some on google groups, and some via Ease. groups.io sounds interesting but I'm not familiar with it.
There are also groups on Linked in that are members only access. A Linked in basic membership is free, and you can keep your email address private if you want.
posted by gudrun at 6:09 AM on February 1, 2015
There are also groups on Linked in that are members only access. A Linked in basic membership is free, and you can keep your email address private if you want.
posted by gudrun at 6:09 AM on February 1, 2015
I work in the Alumni office for a University which trains some medical professionals who are small groups of students who spend a very intense two years together.
Virtually all those classes choose to do what you are describing via a Facebook group. People join the group (groups can be set to members only, or even "secret" so nobody else can find it). People can subscribe to the group without giving the other group members access to the other things they post on Facebook.
posted by anastasiav at 6:10 AM on February 1, 2015
Virtually all those classes choose to do what you are describing via a Facebook group. People join the group (groups can be set to members only, or even "secret" so nobody else can find it). People can subscribe to the group without giving the other group members access to the other things they post on Facebook.
posted by anastasiav at 6:10 AM on February 1, 2015
My graduate school cohort uses a Google Group for this purpose. We did start out with a Facebook group but (even in this day and age! even under 30s!) some people didn't have or didn't want to use Facebook. The Google Group has worked out well for us.
posted by telegraph at 6:21 AM on February 1, 2015
posted by telegraph at 6:21 AM on February 1, 2015
Email is great for this. I'm in multiple such groups, some hosted through institutional mail servers and others through google groups.
Despite being well under thirty, I consider it a deal-breaker for any professional organization to ask for my Facebook account. That is such a terrible idea on so many levels.
posted by d. z. wang at 7:12 AM on February 1, 2015 [3 favorites]
Despite being well under thirty, I consider it a deal-breaker for any professional organization to ask for my Facebook account. That is such a terrible idea on so many levels.
posted by d. z. wang at 7:12 AM on February 1, 2015 [3 favorites]
Yahoo groups is infinitely easier to use than Google groups.
posted by k8t at 7:32 AM on February 1, 2015
posted by k8t at 7:32 AM on February 1, 2015
Google groups isn't beautiful but works just fine for me: it's easy to add/remove email addresses from the web interface, and sending to the list email address just works.
posted by katrielalex at 7:42 AM on February 1, 2015
posted by katrielalex at 7:42 AM on February 1, 2015
I have administered both Yahoo groups and Listservs for non-tech audiences. There was overwhelmingly more participation and sign-up with the Yahoo groups. From an admin perspective, one isn't particularly harder than the other, though in general the Listserv was run on a hosted server, which might be more overhead than you want to deal with.*
*either way, the number of people who are willing to manage their own subscriptions (for example, by "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" in their email subject) is probably going to be quite small. Instead, they will email to the admin or to the entire group saying "I don't want to be on the list anymore, please unsubscribe me."
posted by instamatic at 7:45 AM on February 1, 2015
*either way, the number of people who are willing to manage their own subscriptions (for example, by "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" in their email subject) is probably going to be quite small. Instead, they will email to the admin or to the entire group saying "I don't want to be on the list anymore, please unsubscribe me."
posted by instamatic at 7:45 AM on February 1, 2015
Completely disagree with Nelson.
Go with a Google group. Your concern is about staying in touch over a long time, not using the latest and greatest Slack alternative. It's important that the group remain live over months, years, even decades, and to have a simple interface (email).
I'm a member of a few Google groups - a meeting group, a graduate school class, etc. Some of them are nearly a decade old. Google groups have so far been the best way to stay in touch and to exchange information, especially if the communication becomes sparse and less active as time goes by.
posted by suedehead at 9:58 AM on February 1, 2015
Go with a Google group. Your concern is about staying in touch over a long time, not using the latest and greatest Slack alternative. It's important that the group remain live over months, years, even decades, and to have a simple interface (email).
I'm a member of a few Google groups - a meeting group, a graduate school class, etc. Some of them are nearly a decade old. Google groups have so far been the best way to stay in touch and to exchange information, especially if the communication becomes sparse and less active as time goes by.
posted by suedehead at 9:58 AM on February 1, 2015
Best answer: I have administered Google Groups, Yahoo Groups, and a self-hosted Mailman-based mailing list.
Generally these lists don't hide your e-mail address, although I think you can configure them to do so, if you need to. I would prefer not to, simply because I like list members to be able to contact each other outside of the list.
Mailing lists usually default to sending every message separately, but they also always have a "digest mode" option, where you can specify the sending interval.
My own preference would be to use Google Groups for something like this unless I had a compelling reason not to. Then again, I'm over 30, so I think e-mail is the bee's knees.
No matter what mailing list you use, you will need to maintain it to some extent, unsubscribing people who can't figure out how to unsubscribe themselves (even if there's a big CLICK HERE TO UNSUBSCRIBE link in the footer of every message). It's not a lot of work, and one list can have multiple admins.
posted by adamrice at 12:57 PM on February 1, 2015
Generally these lists don't hide your e-mail address, although I think you can configure them to do so, if you need to. I would prefer not to, simply because I like list members to be able to contact each other outside of the list.
Mailing lists usually default to sending every message separately, but they also always have a "digest mode" option, where you can specify the sending interval.
My own preference would be to use Google Groups for something like this unless I had a compelling reason not to. Then again, I'm over 30, so I think e-mail is the bee's knees.
No matter what mailing list you use, you will need to maintain it to some extent, unsubscribing people who can't figure out how to unsubscribe themselves (even if there's a big CLICK HERE TO UNSUBSCRIBE link in the footer of every message). It's not a lot of work, and one list can have multiple admins.
posted by adamrice at 12:57 PM on February 1, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Obscure Reference at 5:24 AM on February 1, 2015 [2 favorites]