You've come up with a great idea: a mailing list for people who like chocolate mud cake, or drive Formula-1 racing cars, or write major accounting packages in INTERCAL. Whatever. Before you start, you'll need to think about a few things, and the first thing you should think about is why you want to start the list.
Most people start mailing lists for selfish reasons, and this isn't a bad thing. Usually, you'll want to start the list to disseminate information about something that you "own" (for instance, a technical mailing list for a piece of software you distribute, or an announcement list for a club or business), or you want to form a list for discussion of a topic you're interested in and hopefully meet other people with similar interests. Sometimes it's a combination of the two.
Just because you have a vested interest in the mailing list doesn't mean that you shouldn't start it. But be wary of starting a list whose publically stated aim is different from your own personal aims. An example of this might be a list which you publicise as being "a help and support group for new web authors" but which you really intend to be a vehicle for you to sell your book about HTML. Commercial interests are the most common example of such lists, but there are others.
If your personal aims do not match the publicly stated purpose of the list you're hoping to start, you need to change one or the other. The easiest thing is to change the publicly stated purpose of the list -- simply include in any announcements, publicity or FAQs a blurb which describes your reasons for starting the list.
Example 2-1. Disclosure of purpose
I'm starting this list in the hopes of meeting people who share my interest in this topic. - - - This list is intended to inform its members of the products and services provided by ExampleCorp, as well as to provide a discussion forum for users of our products. - - - This list is the outgrowth of discussions between myself and Joe Smith, who suggested that a mailing list would be an appropriate way to encourage people to contribute to our political cause. |