Mailing list etiquette

As companies get larger, mailing lists get larger and noisier and generally less useful at disseminating information or fostering debate.

Here are some succinct tips on making the most of mailing lists while minimally impacting the productivity of list members.

Joining and leaving a list

Never email a list asking to join or leave it. At a small company where lists have less than 10 people on them, maybe that works, but mailing lists are typically controlled by:

• Some sort of corporate directory application or website

• Emailing a different address to manually or automatically subscribe or unsubscribe.

Lists like that have a separate email to manage membership typically list this information at the bottom of every email or it would be listed in some corporate directory.

Sending a message to a list

There are some important things to consider before sending a message to a mailing list.

Sending a message to a mailing list should be a considered action. Think of the time it took you to write the messa…