At 5:39 PM +0000 2/4/99, Ivan Pope wrote:
> I have always found the
> absoluteness of lists a pain: what I mean by this is the existence of lots
> of semi-parallel lists on subjects that cross over a lot. I don't really
> want to belong to all of them, but cross posting is an art, not a science.
This is in reality a feature, not a bug. The parallel aspect of lists
is wonderful, because of its encouragement of diversity.
Imagine living in a city iwth one bar, where both the bikers and the
sports fans have to live together (along with the gays, the singles,
the drunks, the cops, and everyone else). How well does that work?
Not very. Instead, even though all of these bars are parallel, in
that they serve the same basic purpose (people go there to drink and
socialize), nobody suggests we should do away with all those bars,
nor do people feel they should be in all of the bars, in case they
miss a conversation they might want to be part of.
One of the realities of the internet you have to learn to deal with
is that there are going to be discussions going on you won't run
into, just like the discussions going on in bars around the city. the
positive of the Net is that you literally CAN be in dozens of "bars"
at once -- then the trick comes to finding time to soaking up all of
the conversations (and dumping the ones you don't care of). Rather
than complain about the sheer number of conversations, since that's
tilting at windmills, rejoice in it, and use it to your advantage --
find those bars that you find most interesting adn useful, stay in
those, and jetison the rest.
> So what tools would you like to see added to mailing lists? How do you see
> mailling lists evolving? Where do we go from here?
First, much of what goes on as far as discussion lists is moving to
the web, and will continue moving to the web. But second, the web is
going to suck up mailing lists as it does. I've spent a good chunk of
time on this with a web-forum vendor, and there's some really nice
web-discussion/email integration over the horizon. If it works the
way we expect it will, it's gonna be fun. Stay tuned, since I can't
talk about details yet.
But if you don't like how mailing lists work, web forums are the next
step forward. But be aware, it won't solve your basic complaint --
there are still going to be dozens of bars you wish you had time to
spend time in. But that diversity is a good thing, not a bad thing.
--
Chuq Von Rospach (Hockey fan? <http://www.plaidworks.com/hockey/>)
Apple Mail List Gnome (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
Plaidworks Consulting (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
<http://www.plaidworks.com/> + <http://www.lists.apple.com/>
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