email groups

[TheMysticMasseuse]

hello everyone,

i want to create a mailing group (like yahoo groups or google groups). perhaps I am being thick, but do you have to have a yahoo (or google) email address to join a yahoo (or google) group?

If not- can you please explain. If so- do you know of any alternatives that let anyone register, regardless of their email account?

apologies if this really is a doh question...

From what I've seen, Google groups are similar to USENET newsgroups (public access, anyone within reason can post to them). Yahoo groups (I've only used as a subscriber to get news from a Chicago radio station) offers a "closed" user group, so people have to join the group before they can read past posts or post their own.

Here is a piece I found about "how to create a Yahoo Group".

You might be wanting a "mailing list" if you have a newsletter (eg from a small business) or similar that you (and only you) can use to send out e-mail, where the recipients don't have access to themselves send messages to everyone else. Some web hosting services offer mailing lists, and there may be some commercial services offering similar.

Biggest concern about any mailing list is the requirement to ensure any recipient has opted in to receive e-mail because the hosting / sending server can be blacklisted easily if there are complaints about unsolicited e-mail... hence many web hosting firms have severe (£ or $) penalties for complaints of "spamming". Be very careful if you go down the mailing list route, for your own peace of mind, and to safeguard your finances against legal action.

Thanks NG. I think I am going with googlegroups.

(ps we really did scare you on that twilight thread, didn't we )

just too cryptic for me to get engrossed