Alan Schwartz
Managing Mailing Lists
O'Reilly & Associates, 1998. ISBN: 1-56592-259-X. Pp. 350. $28.95.

Reviewed by Rick Umali <rgu@world.std.com>

This book is a fine start for aspiring list managers and system administrators on UNIX systems, but intermediate to advanced mailing list managers may expect a little more.

Given the title, I was expecting more on how to "manage" a mailing list, not so much the technical issues, but rather the nontechnical issues (unruly behavior, policies, etc.). There are preliminary discussions on mailing list management topics, but I was hoping for more.

Instead, the primary focus of the book is how to start and manage a mailing list manager (MLM). The author writes for both the list's maintainer/manager and the list's server administrator as well. This is an important distinction. One person runs the list, sometimes moderating the mail messages of the list's subscribers, while the other manages the software that manages the list. Although Schwartz does cater to both audiences, the scale tips slightly to the "server administrators" as the primary audience.

Despite this focus, the book has plenty to offer for both groups.

Because I run a small mailing list (the Tiger Woods mailing list) using Majordomo, a lot of the general concepts (such as how email works) in the first two chapters were familiar to me. Schwartz's treatment of these general concepts is good.

You learn about the mysterious ">" before the word From if From is the first word on a line in the body of an email message. You also learn about Message-IDs and the difference between MUA (mail user agent) and MTA (mail transfer agent). I was especially pleased to learn about the RFC 1893, which specifies codes returned by mail bounces. And Mr. Schwartz compares mailing lists to USENET News, as well as how to handle large mailing lists.

Table 2-1 in chapter 2 is a good Consumer Reports breakdown of the different features provided by the four mailing list managers described in the book. Not every reader will have the flexibility to choose which list management software to use, but Mr. Schwartz provides advice on that as well (choose a server that runs either LISTSERV Lite or Majordomo, because list configuration can be done by the list manager in addition to the server administrator).

The next four chapters touch upon creating/configuring the list, writing the "welcome" message for your list, testing the list, and then list administration. Each chapter attempts to describe the details of the specific MLM. The author provides good details on the Majordomo and LISTSERV Lite, primarily because these MLMs allow the list manager (in addition to the server administrator) to configure the list.

Chapter 7 ("Maintaining Lists with Sendmail") may be old hat to seasoned system administrators, but it's a great introduction to how some companies set up internal mailing lists. This is the most raw chapter and the most daunting for the beginner, although budding sysadmins will definitely want to try this out.

Chapter 8 ("Troubleshooting Your Lists") is short, but the discussion of how to debug mailing list managers is important for server administrators. Mr. Schwartz's own example of how he resolved a mailing list loop ("A Third-Party Loop," p. 101) provides great insight into solving mailing list problems.

The last four chapters on administering Listproc, Majordomo, SmartList, and LISTSERV Lite are geared for the server administrator. This person may be the system administrator. Each chapter provides how to compile/install each kit, how to configure the "server," how to add lists, and how to deal with the day-to-day management of the list software itself.

Each chapter is like an expert looking over your shoulder as you obtain the MLM software and set it up. List managers should peruse the chapter concerning their MLM packages, because it will provide insights on what can be done with the mailing list. In these chapters, I learned (among other things) that Listproc and LISTSERV Lite employ servers, how Majordomo generates the "bounced email list," and that SmartList uses procmail (a book in and of itself!).

Chapter 8, on troubleshooting your list, and chapter 2 represent the content I was most looking for. There will always be more list managers than server administrators because MLMs are designed to support many lists. Because of this, I was hoping to see more information on how to deal with list management issues such as irate list subscribers, mail list bombing, and how to "grow your list." In other words, the "diplomacy" side of mailing list management.

Mr. Schwartz does touch on this side. His comments and examples on how to write an effective Welcome Email should be standard reading for new list managers. Chapter 2's essay on "The Life Cycle of a List" (p. 22) (submitted by Brent Chapman) is an excellent "time line" on the evolution of a mailing list (from creation, to growth, to either stagnation or maturity). I was hoping for more of this, because the setup and configuration are typically done once, or infrequently, compared with the day-to-day grind of maintaining a list. For this sort of thing, the list managers's mailing list (which the author mentions in the preface) will prove to be an excellent supplement to Managing Mailing Lists.