The Internet: The Missing Manual

Reading and Organizing Email

Even though it may just be a form-letter welcome note from your ISP, getting your first real email message is a thrill because someone out there knows your email address.

Each time your mail program collects your mail, it deposits the fresh batch of new messages into your mail program's inbox. Until you delete or move the message, it stays there. To help you tell the old from the new, most mail programs highlight the new mail's subject lines with bold text or colored dots.

GEM IN THE ROUGH: Mailing Lists

Before the Web caught on, many people shared common interests by creating email mailing lists (that is, an email discussion group)–and many still do.

Such lists can be on any subject: Welsh corgis, the works of Mark Twain, swine health, flatpicking guitar, and so on. A mailing list is made up of subscribers who sign up with someone called the list master to receive all the messages sent around by other members of the mailing list.

Many colleges have their own mailing lists for faculty and alumni, as do professional groups and corporations. You can even create your own mailing lists, thanks to special features of Google and Yahoo groups (Section 16.1.4).

Once you sign up for a mailing list, the list master provides you with instructions on posting messages to the list, as well as how to unsubscribe if you decide the list isn't for you. You're supplied with a single email address to send your messages to; the mailing list's software automatically distributes ...