How to do research on the internet

What are discussion lists?

A useful resource on the internet for researchers are email discussion lists. They enable you to communicate with, and ask questions of other people who are interested in similar topics. When you send an email message to an email discussion list it is forwarded to all of the people who are members of that particular list.

There are different types of discussion lists:

• open list: open to anyone and the messages are forwarded automatically without human intervention
• closed list: available only to certain people, e.g. employees of a company
• moderated list: messages are looked at by a person, often known as the list owner, who decides whether or not to forward the messages to other members

Many lists maintain archives of past discussions. You can use these to find the answers to common questions, or to keep up with issues on the list whilst not actually becoming a member.