” cannot for the life of me figure out a ping list”
It is merely a list that you maintain as a text file on your computer and then copy into the To line when needed.
Nothing magical about it as it might seem. There really isn’t such as thing as a ping list.
It’s a good idea to invite people to any ping-list that you’re thinking of creating. Some people don’t like being automatically added to one.
Just post a vanity message saying that you are creating a ping list on a particular subject, and if anyone wants to be on it they should respond privately through Freepmail. (It’s a lot easier to keep track of them if they respond privately.)
Then save all the FR screen names to a document; and when you want to post something to all of them, copy and paste all of their ‘names’ in the ‘To’ space, separated by semi-colons.