APG-L Archives

From: <>
Subject: Newsgroups vs. Mailing Lists
Date: Thu, 15 Apr 1999 00:42:10 EDT

In a message dated 4/14/99 5:49:43 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
writes:

<< Newsgroups (which a mailing list actually is) >>

Sorry, Myra, but I have to contradict -- They are definitely different in
technology and regulatory definitions. I worked in software development at
AOL for 12 years, 9 years of it spent on the mail and newsgroup systems and
had to be very familiar with the differences.

The key differences:
Mailing lists are delivered directly to specific individuals by an
approved mail carrier (your email provider). The provider must follow all
rules and regulations of the US Postal Service in handling that piece of
mail, no matter how many addressees it's going to. Each recipient recieves
their mail in a private, approved mailbox. They become public if and only
if, one of the recipients copies or archives the mail to other locations.

Newsgroups are not delivered directly to a mailing list, but are
posted by the author to a public message board. Recipients are those who
chose to go to a newsgroup and request a list of messages to select from (or
download all unread messages). Any individual can request a newsgroup, and
see all or part of the messages, in or out of context. There is no context
of private or choice as to who can see the message. While the individual's
computer software may present the messages in the same container that the
mail is in, they must be clearly identified as NOT being actual mail.

While this may seem like simply a technical distinction, I disagree. There
are distinct rights and privacy issues attached to the two.

A mailing list is like a private conference/meeting. Many companies and
associations use them very effectively to facilitate communication on
projects and for idea development discussions -- it is much more profitable
than having people travelling to or waiting around for meetings to start.

-- Jan DeLucien
Genealogical Enterprises, LLC

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