Sorry this is gonna come off as a dumb question, but after viewing the thread about "Other Programming Forums" I got to thinking that I dont know too many either. It seems like much of the programming community prefer communicating via email (and emailing lists), and especially in the OS community.

How do you guys access mailing lists? I understand you send an email to the head of the list to register you, but what type of software/management system do you guys use (so you dont get -flooded- with crap). I guess I'm looking for a customizable email reader, possibly Mozilla Thunderbird, but seriously I have never used a mailing list before and Im pretty green to the subject.

A bit of a tutorial would really be appreciated. I figured I'd post this here because programmers would be most likely to use/understand what I'm asking. Thats my logic and I'm sticking to it

Thanks

I belong to several mailing list. Thunderbird is my choice of reader.

I have created filters based on the senders that shuddle the messages into seperate folders while they are being downloaded.
What I had previously taught Thunderbird to be junk has been dumped to trash.
I quickly scan whats left to be sure no one new has sent something I need.
Hit alt A and mark everything as junk and the click on delete.

Then go to the folders and read my mail.