Finding Mailing Lists

There are many thousands of mailings lists all over the world used for discussion of just about every subject imaginable. Several websites provide mailing list indexes to help you find lists of interest to you. Some include search engines that enable you to search the lists for keywords of interest. Some of the most useful indexes are listed below:

• CataList *

• Google Groups

• JISCmail

• Tile.net

• Yahoo Groups.

Some people believe that indexes of mailings lists are unethical because not all lists want to be publicized. However, most lists do want to be publicized so the greatest number of people can use them, so these ethical reservations have not gained much support.

If a list provides an online web archive, you can often get a sense of the volume of traffic and subject matter by browsing recent postings before you subscribe.

The "new-list" mailing list provides a notification of new mailing lists and changes to existing mailing lists. Because this list is high volume, you should try the web indexes listed above first. If you do sign up to this list, make sure you set the digest command to get only one summary message a day. You can subscribe to the list by sending an email to LISTSERV@HYPATIA.CS.WISC.EDU, and putting the following message in the body of the email:

subscribe new-list yourfirstname yourlastname

Historical indexes:

• Mailing list FAQ

• Public Mailing List FAQ.