Editing LISTSERV (section)

{{short description|Electronic mailing list software}}
{{about|the specific software application|electronic mailing lists in general|Electronic mailing list}}
{{Infobox Software
| name                   = Listserv
| logo                   = 
| screenshot             = 
| caption                = 
| collapsible            = 
| author                 = Éric Thomas
| developer              = 
| released               = {{Start date and age|1986}}<ref name=history>{{cite web | url=http://www.nic.funet.fi/index/FUNET/history/internet/en/1986.html | title=History of the Internet&nbsp;– 1986}}</ref>
| latest release version = LISTSERV 17.5<ref name="ls_release">{{Cite web|url=https://www.lsoft.com/products/listserv_17.5.asp|title=New in LISTSERV 17.5|website=L-Soft}}</ref>
| latest release date    = {{Start date and age|2024|11|20}}
| programming language   = 
| operating system       = 
| platform               = [[Cross-platform]]
| language               = 
| genre                  = [[Mailing lists]]
| license                = [[Proprietary software|Proprietary]]
| website                = {{URL|https://www.lsoft.com/products/listserv.asp}}
}}

The term '''Listserv''' (styled by the registered trademark licensee, L-Soft International, Inc., as '''LISTSERV''') has been used to refer to [[electronic mailing list]] software applications in general, but is more properly<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://techterms.com/definition/listserv|title=LISTSERV Definition|website=techterms.com|access-date=2019-10-02}}</ref> applied to a few early instances of such software, which allows a sender to send one [[email]] to a list, which then transparently sends it on to the addresses of the subscribers to the list.

The original Listserv software, the Bitnic Listserv (also known as BITNIC LISTSERV) (1984–1986), allowed mailing lists to be implemented on [[IBM]] VM [[Mainframe computer|mainframes]] and was developed by [[Ira Fuchs]], Daniel Oberst, and Ricky Hernandez in 1984. This mailing list service was known as Listserv@Bitnic (also known as LISTSERV@BITNIC) and quickly became a key service on the [[BITNET]] network. It provided functionality similar to a UNIX [[Sendmail]] alias and, as with Sendmail, subscriptions were managed manually.

In 1986, Éric Thomas developed an independent application, originally named "Revised Listserv" (also known as "Revised LISTSERV"), which was the first automated mailing list management application. Prior to Revised Listserv, email lists were managed manually. To join or leave a list, people would write to a list administrator and ask to be added or removed, a process that became more time-consuming as discussion lists grew in popularity.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?A0=LSTSRV-L | title=Unedited archives of LSTSRV-L, LISTSERV site administrators' forum, July 1986–}}</ref>

By 1987, the users of the Bitnic Listserv had migrated to Thomas' version.

Listserv was freeware from 1986 through 1993 and is now a commercial product developed by L-Soft, a company founded by Thomas in 1994.<ref>{{cite web |first= Sam |last=Costello |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2001/TECH/industry/10/30/fsecure.email.idg/index.html | title=E-mail lists get virus protection |publisher=CNN |department=Sci-Tech |date=October 30, 2001}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.lsoft.com/corporate/ericthomas_cv.asp | title=CV of Éric Thomas}}</ref>  A free version limited to ten lists of up to 500 subscribers each can be downloaded from the company's web site.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lsoft.com/download/listservfree.asp |title=L-Soft web page with download links for the free version, ''LISTSERV Lite Free''|accessdate=12 April 2013}}</ref>

Several other list-management tools were subsequently developed, such as Lyris ListManager in 1997 (now Aurea Email Marketing),<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-08-06 |title=Lyris |url=https://www.aurea.com/our-acquisitions/lyris/ |access-date=2022-04-25 |website=Aurea Software |language=en-US}}</ref> [[Sympa]] in 1997, [[GNU Mailman]] in 1998, and Gaggle<ref>{{Cite web |title=Best Listserv Alternative • Gaggle Mail |url=https://gaggle.email/listserv-alternative |access-date=2022-04-25 |website=gaggle.email}}</ref> in 2015.