I belong to four mailing lists on eGroups and moderate three. All of these groups were originally on onelist before onelist merged with eGroups. Five years ago, when I first joined a loop, you had to manually enter each member's name into your e-mail. Once you set it up in your address book, it wasn't a problem. But, the problems began when someone changed their address, a new member was added, or someone wanted to leave the loop. Inevitably, someone on the loop wouldn't make the change and mail would be sent to the wrong address, not sent to the new person, or still being sent to the person who wanted to leave. Once a message was created, any reply to that message would go to the original addresses, therefore perpetuating the mailing errors.

The greatest thing about an automated mailing list is that the individual is in control of their mail. They subscribe or unsubscribe their own address. No one has to change their address books. Also, the subscriber has a choice whether or not to receive mail individually or in digest form. Digest is when you receive all the day's e-mails to that particular group in one large e-mail, thereby greatly reducing the amount of mail in your inbox. One of the disadvantages to digest form is that most people when replying to a message that they received in digest form do not change the subject lines in their reply. So, any messages that they send have RE: Digest Form #123 on their reply. You have no idea what their message is about and cannot determine if that is a message you want to read when reviewing your mail. I am a strong believer in keeping your e-mails on topic of the subject line. If you change the subject, then let your subject line reflect that.

Another option is to just be able to view the mail on the web. This is a great option for those that do not want their inboxes filled up with mail, but would still like to keep up with what is being "talked" about on the group. This is a great option for when you go on vacation.

If you decide you no longer want to receive mail from your group, but are not wanting to unsubscribe, you can also set your mail to NOMAIL. Which means you will not receive any mail from that group. You are still considered a member of the group though. The only time I can a point to this is if you are going on vacation or will not be near your computer to check your mail for any extended period of time. (I have known some people to go NOMAIL and never come back. I guess they forget they are still signed up on the group.)

Occasionally, eGroups is down and no one receives mail. Usually, the moderator will receive a message beforehand warning you when the system will be down. But, there have been times when that wasn't the case. Very few times, I may add.

eGroups is simple to use. It is very easy to set up your own group or to subscribe to a group. There is a group for every interest. Some interests I'll bet you never even thought of.

eGroups also offers your list a place to chat, a place to upload files, a calendar of events and a place to list the your favorite URL's. These are only accessible to members of the list.

I have really enjoyed having my lists on eGroups and being a member of other eGroup list. I think it is a great way to communicate among members of a group. One address is all you need to send a message to everyone in the group. Can't ask for anything simpler.

The only drawback that I have seen is that if the settings on a group is set that when you hit reply, the message only goes to the group and not the original sender. People tend to send messages to the entire group that should have been sent to an individual. There are people that tend to be lazy and not cut/paste the person's e-mail address and reply only to them. There are times when a personal reply should be made to the sender and not to the entire group.



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