Creating a mail group might differ, depending on program you use, but for this exercise we’ll use Outlook as program as it is a widely used email program. Why would you use a mail group? So that you don’t have to go through your address book selecting everyone that belongs to a particular group or listing – same person could be listed with several different groups. Far quicker when sending an email to whole list to just select name of that list instead.

The idea behind these groups is that someone starts up or moderates a topic and people become members (at no cost) if they are interested. Some of these groups have closed memberships, i.e. you have to be involved in whatever that group is about and outsiders cannot join, whilst other groups are open to all and sundry.

With whole world being open to membership for these groups cultural differences need to be considered and it is possible to easily upset a member and suddenly you have a heated argument with many others getting involved and original meaning and context completely shoved aside! I've seen this happen in groups and it's a shame, as it often just takes a little thought and consideration to realise that perhaps writer didn't fully understand language, or hadn't actually meant what may have sounded rather rude. There have been times when someone has written something I thought was offensive or wrong and rather than emailing back to list via group email address, I have chosen to email writer direct instead. A much better way to handle a misunderstanding.

A good rule when handling/writing email for group discussions - read through it first and then check which address it is going to, before clicking 'Send'.