If you'd like to receive the digest form of the list (all of the messages for a day bundled into a single email), send mail to election-methods-digest-request@eskimo.com with the word "subscribe" in the subject of the message.
On "election-methods-list", we discuss the nitty-gritty details of single-winner election reform, the relative merits of different proportional representation systems, and the technical underpinnings of all election methods. "election-methods-list" discussions tend to be technical in nature (or at least, very laden with jargon, with the ultimate goal of providing recommendations and educational material to the electoral reform movement. Those that want to have in-depth discussions about the technical subtleties of election methods can use "election-methods-list" to discuss those things without fear of reprisal from those who aren't interested.
Hopefully this is all common sense, but sadly not common enough (hence
the reason for this message). In summary, please ask, answer, and be humble.
Frequently Asked Questions List
The closest thing to an official FAQ this group has is the Electoral reform jargon list, which is a collaboratively edited Wiki page. If there's information missing from that page (as of 13-April-2002, it's pretty sparse), please add to that list.
Additionally, there are a number of unofficial sources which define many of the terms used on the list:
Though Yahoo! does a great service by archiving this group, over the years, they've made it less and less obvious that this list does not originate there. As a result, people think they are officially subscribed to this list, but in actuality, they are not. Since posting is only available to those officially subscribed, there are only a few methods for getting on the list:
Speaking of My Userland, they now provide an election-methods-list "channel" which allows you to read this list off of My Userland.