What is FreeLists?

FreeLists provides the internet community with Free, no-hassle, high-quality mailing lists. We don't use advertisements and we don't charge for higher-than-a-certain-volume lists. That means you don't have to worry about too many people signing up, nor the amount of traffic on your list(s). FreeLists is about just getting the message across to your subscribers.

What's that Free thing all about? (Our philosophy)

FreeLists is a completely Free service. We're not talking just about price here. See, there's a philosophy behind FreeLists: Knowledge and Information are free, and should stay that way. Our service is about maintaining that objective.

FreeLists runs a completely free service on completely Free software. The Linux operating system, the Apache webserver, and the Ecartis mailing manager are responsible for bringing FreeLists to you daily. Mhonarc and Swish-E work in conjunction to bring you the web-based archives. All of this software is Free software and we italicize that word over and over again to emphasize its importance. See the Free Software Foundation's website for more information.

mhonarc swish-e ecartis clamav msfree

So if knowledge and information is so free, why the limit on the scope of list topics? That was an arbitrary decision on our part. We do have limited bandwidth, and we can't afford (this whole thing comes out of our own pockets, you know) to fill it up with things like "Lucy's Tips on Fingernail Polishing at the Bus Stop."

Can I help?

A service like ours is expensive to run. Please make a donation whenever you can afford to. Funds raised go to bandwidth fees, hardware maintenance, and funding development on the services we provide.

If you've got any suggestions on how to run the place, we're open for whatever you've got-- especially web design critiqes and that sort of thing.

We need help with documentation. If you're experienced with the LSG/2 interface that comes with Ecartis (what our web interface is based on), or have a good understanding of mailing lists and their usage, please see our Help section and see if there's anything you can contribute.

Of course, the biggest thing you can do to help is to get a list of your own, start loading it up with subscribers, and then let us know how we can improve the service. Every little bit helps.

-The FreeLists Staff
staff@freelists.org