What is a mailing list?

A mailing list is an email list organized around a specific topic or function. It lets people who are working together communicate with the whole group by sending out one email. Instead of emailing everyone individually, you send your email to the listserv's address. The listserv program makes sure that everyone on the list gets a copy of that email.

How do I subscribe to, or unsubscribe from, PBIF mailing lists?

To subscribe to any of the PBIF mailing lists, send an email from your e-mail account to LISTSERV@HAWAII.EDU. DO NOT put anything in the subject line and DO write the following text in the body of the message (don't include the brackets ["<>"]):

SUBSCRIBE listname your name

For example, if your name is John Smith and you want to subscribe to the regular PBIF announcments list, PBIF-L, you would send a message to LISTSERV@HAWAII.EDU from your e-mail account as follows:

SUBSCRIBE PBIF-L John Smith

Congratulations!To send a message to the list, just address your e-mail to PBIF-L@HAWAII.EDU just like you would address e-mail to any other person. In this case, however, instead of your message being sent to just an individual recipient, it will be sent to ALL the current subscribers to that list.

It is polite to send a message of introduction to the list immediately after you received acknowledgement from the list server that your subscription has been approved; that way, the other members of the list know that you've joined them. Please let others know who you are, your interests, etc. (Hint: You'll send this message to PBIF-L@HAWAII.EDU, not to LISTSERV@HAWAII.EDU. See "How to use PBIF internet lists" for more information about this.)

UNSUBSCRIBING: Please UNSUBSCRIBE your account before closing or changing your internet account (to avoid unnecessary hassle to the list administrator). To unsubscribe, simply send a message (as above) from the subscribed account as follows:

UNSUBscribe PBIF-L