tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Apr 25 17:43:29 1995
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The Life of Mailing Lists
- From: [email protected] (David Barron)
- Subject: The Life of Mailing Lists
- Date: Tue, 25 Apr 1995 17:43:24 -0700
*mailing list* pImvo' jabbI'ID vIHev 'ej
chaq *mailing list*maj QaHlaH 'oH.
yIlaD 'ej nuqDaq maH yIqel.
>[author unknown]
>
>THE NATURAL LIFE CYCLE OF MAILING LISTS
>
>Every list seems to go through the same cycle:
>
>1. Initial enthusiasm (people introduce themselves, and gush alot about
> how wonderful it is to find kindred souls).
>
>2. Evangelism (people moan about how few folks are posting to the list,
> and brainstorm recruitment strategies).
>
>3. Growth (more and more people join, more and more lengthy threads
> develop, occasional off-topic threads pop up).
>
>4. Community (lots of threads, some more relevant than others; lots of
> information and advice is exchanged; experts help other experts as
> well as less experienced colleagues; friendships develop; people tease
> each other; newcomers are welcomed with generosity and patience;
> everyone -- newbie and expert alike -- feels comfortable asking
> questions, suggesting answers, and sharing opinions).
>
>5. Discomfort with diversity (the number of messages increases
> dramatically; not every thread is fascinating to every reader; people
> start complaining about the signal-to-noise ratio; person 1 threatens
> to quit if *other* people don't limit discussion to person 1's pet
> topic; person 2 agrees with person 1; person 3 tells 1 & 2 to lighten
> up; more bandwidth is wasted complaining about off-topic threads than
> is used for the threads themselves; everyone gets annoyed).
>
>6a. Smug complacency and stagnation (the purists flame everyone who asks
> an 'old' question or responds with humor to a serious post; newbies
> are rebuffed; traffic drops to a doze-producing level of a few minor
> issues; all interesting discussions happen by private email and are
> limited to a few participants; the purists spend lots of time
> self-righteously congratulating each other on keeping off-topic
> threads off the list).
>OR
>
>6b. Maturity (a few people quit in a huff; the rest of the participants
> stay near stage 4, with stage 5 popping up briefly every few weeks;
> many people wear out their second or third 'delete' key, but the list
> lives contentedly ever after).
>
>
>
David Barron [email protected] OR [email protected]
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PO Box 37, Eagle ID 83616
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