Editing Mailing list (section)

==Types==
At least two types of mailing lists can be defined: 
* an ''announcement list'' is closer to the original sense, where a "mailing list" of people was used as a recipient for newsletters, periodicals or advertising. Traditionally this was done through the [[postal system]], but with the rise of [[email]], the [[electronic mailing list]] became popular. This type of list is used primarily as a one-way conduit of information and may only be "posted to" by selected people. This may also be referred to by the term ''newsletter''. Newsletter and promotional emailing lists are employed in various sectors as parts of [[direct marketing]] campaigns.
* a "discussion list" allows subscribing members (sometimes even people outside the list) to post their own items which are broadcast to all of the other mailing list members. Recipients may answer in a similar fashion, thus, actual discussion and information exchanges can occur. Mailing lists of this type are usually topic-oriented (for example, politics, scientific discussion, health problems, joke contests), and the topic may range from extremely narrow to "whatever you think could interest us." In this they are similar to [[Usenet]] [[newsgroup]]s, another form of [[discussion group]] that may have an aversion to [[off-topic]] messages.

Historically mailing lists preceded email/web forums; both can provide analogous functionalities. When used in that fashion, mailing lists are sometimes known as ''discussion lists'' or ''discussion forums''. Discussion lists provide some advantages over typical web forums, so they are still used in various projects, notably [[Git (software)|Git]] and [[Debian]]. The advantages over web forums include the ability to work offline, the ability to sign/encrypt posts via [[GNU Privacy Guard|GPG]], and the ability to use an e-mail client's features, such as filters.<ref>{{cite web
  |url=http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/historic-linux/distributions/debian-0.91/debian-0.91/RELEASE-0.91
  |title=Release-0.91 |publisher=[[ibiblio]] |date=January 31, 1994 |access-date=July 3, 2014   |quote=through mailing lists   |archive-date=September 24, 2015
  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924133319/http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/historic-linux/distributions/debian-0.91/debian-0.91/RELEASE-0.91   |url-status=live}}</ref>