Postmanual

A little background: The MYSQL list query works by taking the text you enter (by choosing from the dropdown list on the write tab), and searching each subscriber’s “lists” field for matches. The query says, anything that contains the string of text you’ve chosen — even if there are additional strings before or after it — will be selected.

This means that as long as you name your lists distinctly (ie, “brooklyn” or “newyork”), the query will never return a subscriber with the other list.

However, suppose you wanted to have a list of all New Yorkers, but then sub-divide that list into folks from Brooklyn or Queens?

Set up your lists like this: the broad list (all new yorkers) will be called “newyork.” Each sub-division of that list will be called “brooklynnewyork” and “queensnewyork.”

Now, whenever you want to send a mail to all New Yorkers, choose “newyork” — everyone with newyork in their “lists” field — even those where it appears as part of “brooklynnewyork” — will be mailed to. But if you ever want to send only to people from Brooklyn, choose “brooklynnewyork” — only those subscribers with that specific string in it (ie, all the people you’ve entered that list for) will be mailed.