Mailing Lists Documentation

Historical documentation for the Script Archive mailing lists - a major community resource for CGI and Perl developers in the 1990s

Historical Archive Community 1996-2000

Quick Links

Overview
Available Lists
How to Subscribe (Historical)

Posting Guidelines
List Commands
Modern Alternatives

Historical Archive: These mailing lists are no longer active. This documentation is preserved for historical purposes. The lists were shut down around 2000 as web development communities moved to forums, Stack Overflow, and other platforms.

Overview

The Script Archive hosted several mailing lists that served as community discussion forums for CGI script users, Perl programmers, and webmasters during the formative years of the World Wide Web (1996-2000).

At their peak, these lists had over 10,000 combined subscribers and facilitated thousands of discussions about:

CGI script installation and troubleshooting
Perl programming questions
Web server configuration
HTML form processing
Database integration
Security best practices

Community Impact

10,000+ subscribers at peak
25-50 posts per day (WWW-Scripts)
Helped thousands learn CGI/Perl
Fostered early web community

Technology Used

Platform: Majordomo
Server: UNIX/Sendmail
Format: Plain text email
Archives: Web-based

Available Mailing Lists

New-Scripts Announcement List

A low-traffic, moderated announcement list for new script releases and important updates from the Script Archive.

Announcements of new scripts
Major version updates
Archive news and policy changes
Special announcements

Traffic: 1-2 posts/month
Type: Moderated
Subscribers: ~5,000
Status: Archived

WWW-Scripts Discussion Forum

An active, unmoderated discussion list for CGI and Perl questions. Members could ask questions, share solutions, and discuss web development topics.

CGI script help and troubleshooting
Perl programming questions
Server configuration issues
Code sharing and collaboration
Best practices discussions

Traffic: 25-50 posts/day
Type: Unmoderated
Subscribers: ~1,000
Status: Archived

WWW-Scripts Digest Daily Digest

A digest version of the WWW-Scripts list. Instead of receiving individual emails, subscribers received one daily compilation of all posts.

All WWW-Scripts posts in one email
Sent once daily
Table of contents at top
Same content, less inbox clutter

Traffic: 1 digest/day
Type: Digest
Subscribers: ~500
Status: Archived

How to Subscribe (Historical)

While these lists are no longer active, here's how subscription worked during their operation:

Via Email

Send an email to [email protected] with the following in the message body:

New-Scripts

subscribe new-scripts

WWW-Scripts

subscribe www-scripts

WWW-Scripts Digest

subscribe www-scripts-digest

Note: Leave the subject line blank and include only the subscribe command in the message body. Do not add signature files or extra text.

Posting Guidelines (Historical)

Do:

Read the documentation before asking
Include relevant code snippets
Describe what you've already tried
Provide error messages in full
Reply to the list, not just the sender
Quote relevant parts of previous messages
Use descriptive subject lines
Help others when you can

Don't:

Post entire scripts unless necessary
Use HTML email formatting
Include large attachments
Post the same question multiple times
Engage in flame wars
Send administrative commands to the list
Post commercial advertisements
Ask to be removed (use unsubscribe command)

Etiquette Reminder: These lists were community-driven. Volunteers answered questions in their spare time. Patience and courtesy were expected.

Majordomo Commands (Historical Reference)

Send these commands to [email protected] in the message body:

Command	Description
`subscribe <listname>`	Subscribe to a list
`unsubscribe <listname>`	Unsubscribe from a list
`lists`	Get list of available mailing lists
`info <listname>`	Get information about a list
`which`	Find out which lists you're subscribed to
`who <listname>`	Get list of subscribers (if allowed)
`help`	Get help information

Modern Alternatives

While these mailing lists are no longer active, modern developers can find help through:

Stack Overflow

Q&A platform for programming questions

Perl Questions CGI Questions

Discussion communities for programmers

r/perl r/webdev

PerlMonks

Dedicated Perl community and Q&A site

Visit PerlMonks

Discord / IRC

Real-time chat communities

Search for Perl and web development Discord servers or connect to IRC #perl on irc.perl.org