LISTSERV automatically produces a List of Lists that may be reviewed by users anywhere on the Internet in one of two ways:
Note: It is possible to code a descriptive title in your list header that is more than 40 columns long, but the List of Lists will include only the first 40 columns of that title. Therefore, it is important from this respect to be sure that the descriptive title of your list is succinct and to the point.
L-Soft's CataList service (http://www.lsoft.com/CataList.html) allows users to search the global list of public LISTSERV lists via the World Wide Web. Adding an HTML description to a list is easy, and can do a lot to enhance the appearance of a list in the database. All you have to do is update your list header and add the text of your choice. Here is an example:
* The coffee lovers' list*
* Review= Public Subscription= Open Send= Public
* Notify= Yes Reply-to= List,Respect
* Notebook= Yes,L,Monthly,Public
*
* Owner= claudia@espresso.xyz.it (Claudia Serafino)
*
* <HTML>
* COFFEE-LOVERS is an open list for, well, coffee lovers! Our
* motto is: <cite>"Instant – just say no!"</cite>
* That's pretty much our whole charter, although there are a
* few other <a href="http://www.coffee.org/charter.html">
* rules</a> that you may want to read before joining. For
* instance, we don't allow flame wars about decaf: if you like it,
* well, it's your body after all.
*
* <p>The list is maintained by
* <a href="http://www.coffee.org/claudia.html">Claudia
* Serafino</a> (that's me!) and you will find all sorts of
* useful info about coffee on my home page.
* </HTML>
*
In other words, you just insert your HTML text in the list header and bracket it with <HTML> and
</HTML> tags (these tags tell the web interface where the HTML text begins and ends – they are not actually sent to the web browser). There are three simple rules that you must follow when inserting your HTML data:
When reformatting your list header description for HTML, bear in mind that the text will not always be viewed using a web browser. It is best to keep the formatting as clear as possible and minimize the usage of HTML tags, since there are still many people without WWW access. For instance, do not hesitate to use white space between paragraphs for clarity.
Barring network outages, a list header update takes a maximum of 24h to be reflected in the distributed LISTS database. Database updates are usually scheduled to be broadcast at night, so the changes take place overnight. Once the LISTS database has been updated, it can take a maximum of 24h for the frozen copy of the database used by the web interface to be updated. In most cases, both the LISTS database and its frozen copy on the web server will be updated overnight. However, if the site hosting your lists is several time zones west of the site hosting the web server, and if that server only updates itself once a day, you may have to wait two days for your update to be reflected.
Sometimes it may be useful to link a number of related lists together so that the viewer can quickly examine all the lists without having to go back to the search screen and retyping the names you are providing. You can do this using the special HTML sequence:
This sequence is internally translated to an <a> tag with a URL that will bring up information about the list you indicated. You must then provide a suitable caption and a closing </a> tag. Example:
While all versions of LISTSERV are supported, servers which have no specific support for the
<HTML> and
</HTML> tags will process your HTML data as an ordinary list header line and attempt to determine whether it contains a list header keyword or descriptive text. The exact algorithms vary from one version to another, but in general the parser looks for a single word followed by an equal sign. With HTML text, it is possible (if unlikely) to generate such patterns. Here is an example:
** Sample list with problem pattern
*
* <HTML>
* For more information on the list, just check <a
* href="http://www.xyz.edu/mypage.html">my home page.</a>
* </HTML>
*
In that case, you can just reorder the HTML data so that the equal sign does not appear in this position. Alternatively, if the equal sign was meant to be actually displayed as an equal sign (as opposed to being part of some HTML tag), you can use the HTML escape sequence
= instead.
Note: The complete list of search categories may not yet be available when LISTSERV is released. Note also that during the "pilot" phase of categories implementation, all categories will be "open", and you can define search categories for your list as long as the categories you define are in compliance with the rules for defining categories. When the "production" phase begins, only categories defined below as "open" will be open, and if a list is created or modified without a "Categories=" keyword, LISTSERV will issue a warning (but will go ahead and store the list without it).
Another feature of the CataList service discussed in the preceding section is the ability to search for lists based on topic categories. For instance, a user might be looking for lists that discuss various aspects of opera. The same user might want to search not just for lists that discuss opera in general, but great operatic tenors in particular.
In order to implement search categories for your list, you use the new "Categories=" list header keyword, in conjunction with the list of categories that can be found at the CataList site. The URL for the category list is http://www.lsoft.com/listcat.html.
A typical category listing is in two parts. The first part is the category title itself (this is what you code in the "Categories=" keyword). The second part is an optional description of what the category covers. For instance:
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Open Categories – These categories have a description indicating that they are open and can be added to. Taking our example of great operatic tenors above, you might see the following category listed:
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Notes: When you create a new category, it will not show up until the central categories list has been updated.
There are two "root level" open categories,
Misc and
Local. The
Misc category is world-searchable. If, however, you code a
Local category, it will only be searchable from the search engine running on the server hosting your list.
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Closed Categories – These are categories that cannot be added to. In other words, if you see a category like:
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Categories are defined by the new "Categories=" list header keyword. Each category string's subcategories are internally delimited with colon (":") characters. Each separate category string is separated from the others with commas. If your "Categories=" keyword setting gets too long to fit on one line, simply define multiple "Categories=" keywords. Note that spaces are not allowed in categories; therefore
and if someone searched on that category, they would find our list. But we saw above that we can create a new category if we are running a list dedicated to Luciano Pavarotti. So instead, we might code
If you code a sub-category that does not exist in a "closed" upper-level category, LISTSERV will respond with an error message that will list the legal sub-categories that you can use.
Section 18 Working with Mail and Web Templates Using Email includes details on how to include an informative paragraph in the information mail template file for your list. When a user sends the command INFO listname to your server, LISTSERV responds with either:
If listname.MAILTPL does not exist, the default response is sent. Also note that the user may send the INFO listname command to any L-Soft LISTSERV host (including the Global List Exchange discussed below), which will forward the request to the appropriate server.
The Global List Exchange, or GLX, is a central clearinghouse for LISTSERV subscriptions and List of List requests. For instance, If a user knows the name of a list but not the name of the host server, GLX simplifies the process by giving the user a single address where all subscription requests for lists running on L-Soft's LISTSERV can be sent.
By adding the GLX address in all advertisements for your list, you help other list owners as well as yourself by making it simple for users to subscribe to any list. Additionally, if for some reason a user is unable to contact your server directly, the GLX gives him an alternate subscription method.
It is generally considered a breach of netiquette to invade the privacy of other lists with a broadcast announcement that your list is up and running. The only time when this might be acceptable is when your list addresses a concern of people already subscribed to another list. If you feel it necessary to post an announcement on someone else's list, it is good manners to first send private mail to the owner of that list and ask his or her permission to do so. (The same policy applies to USENET newsgroups, though it may be more difficult to find out who the moderator is.)
It is certainly a breach of netiquette (and many networks' appropriate use policies) to blindly post multiple copies of your announcements to multiple lists. This kind of behavior is termed a "spam", something about which you may read more in Section 15
Moderating and Editing Lists through Email. This kind of announcement is guaranteed to reap a good deal of bad will and may well result in the revocation of your network privileges.
