Newsgroups-part 2, List part 2

In the Yahoo group there appears to be some confusion over what the difference is from a Newsgroup and a List. So here is a brief outline with supporting links for further reading if you wish.

Newsgroups are similar to discussion groups (Blackboard) or forums where anyone can join a public discussion through subscribing to the service. eg giving your details to the group. The subscriber can either just read the posts from other subscribers or he/she can contribute to the thread (join-in on the discussion).

"A newsgroup is an electronic discussion group consisting of collections of related (also called articles) on a particular topic that are posted to a news server which then distributes them to other participating servers." www.learnthenet.com


Lists can be broken down into two types;

1. discussion lists, similar to newsgroups in that the subscriber can participate in the thread
   
2. announcement list, similar to a newsletter where the information is just one way
   

The main difference is lists are sent to your email, newsgroups the subscriber must visit the site.

"A mailing list is a collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients." www.encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com

"The key advantage of a mailing list over a newsgroup is that instead of having to go somewhere to read or retrieve postings, messages are automatically delivered to your e-mail box." www.learnthenet.com