In this guide, you will find information about mailing lists history.

Information and history

A mailing list (mailing list, list, etc.) is a collection of email addresses through which it is possible to communicate with people with similar interests via email. A list of e-mail addresses of people interested in chatting on a certain topic is created in one computer, and this list is given an e-mail address or listi address.

If one member of the mailing list sends a letter to the mailing list address, it is automatically forwarded to all subscribers to the mailing list. If one of the subscribers wants to say something about the sent letter, he sends a reply to the address of the mailing list, and it is sent again to all subscribers of the corresponding mailing list. A kind of electronic conference is created.

The mailing list service has existed at the University of Tartu since the mid-1990s. Over the years, the number of mailing lists has grown and exceeded the thousand mark. As of 08.07.2002, the number of mailing lists was 1150 mailing lists, now it has grown several times. This is partly due to the growth of the university and the popularization of the Internet, and partly due to the fact that there was no other such service provider in Estonia. As a result, non-university mailing lists can be found on the university's mailing list server.

The University of Tartu has used the free listproc, Majordomo and SYMPA as mailing list management software. Since March 2002, the SYMPA (Systeme de Multi-Postage Automatique) software has been in use, which allows managing mailing lists also online. The mailing list software SYMPA underwent a major upgrade in December 2017.