Edukus

The Mailing List

The mailing list is meant to be the central communication channel for the club. As many students nowadays seem to have no proper clue about the concept of a "mailing list", this page aims to provide some answers.

• What is a mailing list?
  • A mailing list is, technically, a list of emails stored on a special mailing list server. The server is responsible for forwarding any incoming messages addressed "to the mailing list" to all those emails. In our case this means that all emails sent to the address "edukus@lists.ut.ee" will be automatically forwarded to everyone, who has "signed up" to this list. In Facebook-speak, it is somewhat like a "page" that you "follow", so that whenever anyone posts something on a "wall", you receive this post in your "feed".
• Why do we need a mailing list, when we have Facebook with pages and walls and all that stuff?
  • There are way too many reasons, and hopefully a proper computer geek comes to appreciate them with time. Here are just some:
    • You can sort/filter/search/move/organize/download email messages. Facebook posts are cumbersome and unwieldy.
    • You are free to organize the way and tools you use for email. With Facebook you are bound to the Facebook interface.
    • Facebook is detrimental to focus for most people. Just opening it may ruin the whole day. Email is much milder. If used correctly, email can help with productivity, instead.
    • Sending emails, in general, makes people think more about what they write, formulate proper sentences and use better language.
    • Email has been there forever, Facebooks, Orkuts, Google Waves come and go.
• But aren't all those mailing lists clogging my mailbox with irrelevant info?
  • We often hear this question from avid Facebook users and we can't take it seriously from them. Do note that Facebook feeds are clogged with irrelevant info without any means of managing it, yet people are OK with that. E-mail at least offers you ways of easily sorting and filtering that info, delete messages with a single push of a button, and does not require you to read beyond the title of the message, if you do not need it.
• OK, how do I subscribe?
  • In order to subscribe, you need to send an email with "subscribe edukus" in the subject line to the address "sympa@lists.ut.ee". Yes, this is how old-school mailing servers work - you send commands to them by email. There are many other commands available. For example, to unsubscribe you simply send a message with "unsubscribe edukus" to the server. If you prefer a web-based administrative interface, there is one for you here.
• How do I use the mailing list?
  • Once you subscribe, you will automatically receive all messages coming to the list. If the list becomes too crowded and you do not like having too many incoming messages, you may tune the way you receive list notifications. For example, rather than receiving each message as it arrives, you may request the list server to group all messages for the day and send them all at once as a digest at the end. Sending a command such as "set edukus digest" will enable this mode.
  • If you want to send a message to the list, simply mail to "edukus@lists.ut.ee". When sending a message, do remember that it is going to be read by many people, so take care of what you write and how you write it. Try to be interesting, constructive, and use correct English language. If the thing you want to say is better told to a particular person privately, send it to the person's email, not to the list.