NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Life cycle of a List
From: Robert Gainer
Date: 2005 Mar 6, 14:53 +0000
From: Robert Gainer
Date: 2005 Mar 6, 14:53 +0000
Frank, Is this off topic because it�s not about navigation, or is it ok because it�s about the list itself?Some of the other lists could benefit from this, so I am copying it for future use. All the best, Robert Gainer >From: Frank Reed >Reply-To: Navigation Mailing List >To: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM >Subject: Re: Life cycle of a List >Date: Sun, 6 Mar 2005 01:14:30 EST > > >"The natural life cycle of mailing lists. >Every list seems to go through the same cycle: >1. Initial enthusiasm (people introduce themselves, and >gush a lot 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). >6. >a. 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- >b. 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). " >Not new. But always entertaining... :-) > >-FER >42.0N 87.7W, or 41.4N 72.1W. >www.HistoricalAtlas.com/lunars _________________________________________________________________ Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE! http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/