Many consider this mailing list as one of the simple ways to stay updated about the latest developments in a field. Mailing lists are used for sending newsletters, e-journals, periodicals, various product updates or discussion groups. In fact it is a great way of developing contacts or networking of people with whom one can grow his or her business.
With the emergence of Internet the distribution of information became more and more extensive. An electronic mailing list generally concentrates on four things. These are the catalog of e-mail addresses, the name of the persons who will be getting mails at those addresses, the content or the body or the messages that is to be sent and a reflector that will send a duplicate of that message to all the subscribers.
An electronic mailing list functions with the help of individual mailing list software and a reflector lied down on a server that is proficient to get emails. Sometimes, additional addresses can also be included but that solely depends on the kind of software that one is using. In fact some electronic servers have the capability that allows the subscribers to execute various tasks. These include the tasks of subscribe and unsubscribe or joining or leaving a mailing list, stopping the process of sending mails for a certain time, modifying the existing preferences etc.
There are various kinds of mailing lists like announcement lists, discussion lists, etc. An announcement list is that kind of electronic list where information can only be posted to selected people only, there by making the means of expression as one way. But in case of the discussion lists just reciprocate happens. Here, the subscriber sends messages or contents to other people, who can answer or reply in the same way. So, here we can say that literally discussions and exchange of information do take place.
Though in some discussion lists, a moderator's approval is required for each and every message before it is being sent to the subscribers. A moderator is a person who put in force the rules set up by Internet Forum. They can edit the posted content, answer to lend a hand to the people in problem etc. One can find some open mailing lists where any one can join while on the other hand one may require approval from the owner.