If you are exchanging mail among a small group, each could maintain their own mailing list for the list of group members with ease. None in the group could use another's mailing list, so each one would have to have their own list. If the list is not changing often, though, this is fine.

These personal mailing lists are handy, and can be all you need in most situations. However, if you have a situation where you want several people outside the group to be able to mail to a mailing list, the method of using a personal mailing list is not practical. These others outside the group would not know the group members' addresses and therefore could not construct their own personal mailing list, nor can they access others' personal mailing lists. Also, technically, the personal mailing list is tied to the mail program that a person is using. Someone across the internet may be running a different mailer and could not use the some other mail program's mailing list file even if it was somehow available.

email program has some way of sending email to a list of email recipients by using a single code word used in the place of an email address. Depending on the mail program you use, this feature might be called a:

• distribution list
• email alias
• mailing list
• nickname

In this text, the feature will be called a mailing list.