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List Life Cycles...
Deirdre LaRock (butterbuns@EARTHLINK.COM)
Sun, 17 Nov 1996 20:58:51 -0500
>The Natural Life Cycle Of Mailing Lists
>by Kat Nagel
>mailto:KatNagel@eznet.net
>It is the best description of the social development of a mailing list I've
>read.
>
>Every list seems to go through the same cycle:
>
>Strong lnitial enthusiasm (people introduce themselves, and gush a lot
about >how wonderful it is to find kindred souls).
>
>Evangelism (people moan about how few folks are posting to the list,
>and brainstorm recruitment strategies).
>
>Growth (more and more people join, more and more lengthy threads
>develop, occasional off-topic threads pop up).
>
>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).
>
>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).
>
>Finally:
>
>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).
>
>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).
>
>--
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City |
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