1.List Types That Can Be Started

There are 3 main list types that differ from each other with regard to sending messages.

a) Open List: The people who are not members of the list can also send messages to the list as well as the list members.
b) Standard List: Only the members of the list can send messages to the list.
c) Announcement List: Only the list owner can send messages to the list (Moderator can be someone else other than the list owner). The messages sent by the other members are not received by the list and they are posted back to the sender with a notification explaining the reason.

An open or standard list can also be defined as moderated list as well.

2.Starting a List

To create a new list on the list server of METU, the academic/administrative department or the adviser/administrator of the student group must apply to METU Computer Center by filling out the "Application Form". A user code and a password defined on the central servers of the university are required to access the application form. The list owner will be notified, if the request to open a new list is deemed appropriate by the Center.

A user must fill out the " Application Form " to be able to open the list she/he wants. The information required on this form covers explanation about the list, the aim of the list, the owner of the list and the type of the list. Only the academic and administrative personnel can access the form using their usernames and passwords defined on the central servers. The procedure for opening a list on METU Electronic List Server is handled by CC Informatics Group.

The name of the list is required to be relevant to the aim and the subject of the list. In addition generic names and names which can possibly be used as user names should not be entered as list names. In case of such list name requests CC Informatics Group suggests appending an "-l" at the end of the list name or adding another suitable suffix or prefix.
eg:
if the user requests the list name "cinema", it is suggested that the name may be changed as odtu-cinema or cinema-l.

Moreover, communication lists are requested for some courses during the academic term. In the applications made for these courses, list name is required to be a combination of the related department's ECS user code and the course code. If a list is requested for a course which is given in more than one section, the list name is defined by adding the section number to the name of the list for the course:
eg: econ123
id234-2

For the requests from METU Northern Cyprus Campus, list name must start with "ncc-" in addition to the criteria above.

Departments may own electronic lists for the purpose of communicating with their students, in case list administration is handled by their own personnel.
Names of such lists that can be defined for different classes are as below:
1. class -> dept-freshman
2. class -> dept-sophomore
3. class -> dept-junior
4. class -> dept-senior
Master and Doctorate Students -> dept-graduate or dept-g
All Undergraduate Students -> dept-undergraduate or dept-ug

Similarly, if requested by departments, general lists with the names, dept-students, dept-staff and dept-faculty can be defined for respectively the department students, staff or faculty members.
"dept" is replaced with the ECS user code of the department.

3.Number of the Members

The minimum number of potential users is recommended to be 5 for an electronic list to be opened on METU Electronic List Server. If the number of the members of the list is less than 5, the members of the list are advised to create an "e-mail chain" or obtain a new user account which the other members can benefit as well, instead of using an electronic list. Even the number of the potential members of the list is less than 10 and the list is still necessary, the grounds for maintaining the list should be stated to CC Informatics Group during list request.

4.Lists for Students Groups

The academic advisers of the groups should apply to open a list for the student groups. The maximum number of lists that can be opened for a student group is 2. To open more than two lists for one student group, one should apply to CC Informatics Group and state the reasons for opening more than two lists.

5.Closing a List

During the annual checks carried out by CC, both the usage statistics and the number of members are analyzed. If there is no traffic of use within the year or the average traffic of use per year is less than 10 e-mail messages, the owners of those lists are informed about the usage of the lists. In case the owner of such a list approves the list to be closed, the procedure for closing the list is started. Besides, the requests for closing any list conveyed by the list owner to CC can be evaluated at any time within the year; if the request is found appropriate, the procedure for closing the list is started.

6.List Ownership

The tasks that the list owner is responsible from are adding and removing members in the list, keeping track of the changes in the e-mail addresses of the members, doing the settings and solving the problems about the security and the list. The rules about sending e-mails and supervision of the list is the responsibility of the list owner as long as they are not against METU Computing and Networking Ethics .