On 2/9/01 8:01 AM, "Tim Bowden" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I would love some of those problems. I promise I will share and
> commisserate totally with all who face those many onerous troubles if
> you will but point me the way to achieve this large mailing list!
We should probably make explicit that we're talking about discussion lists,
or perhaps call them interactive lists. If you're doing announce-only or
some kind of e-newsletter where there's an active editorial process, they
scale wonderfully (I run a server with lists into seven digits). It's when
you get a group together and talking you run into problems.
I'm not sure it IS solvable, with or without technology. If you're in a
college class with 15 people, it's easy to have a discussion circle. But
translate that to a lecture hall with 200 -- all the microphones in the
world won't allow you to hear through the babble.
So I'm more or less convinced you have to change the system in some way, to
give people ways to find what PART of the conversation they're most
interested in. That's the real flaw in lists, the lack of a way to build
flexibility and granularity into it. (Digests are NOT the answer. Digests
simply mean you have the same volume of mail delivered once a week by UPS in
a big box instead of once a day by the postman -- and all digests do is
limit the rate of interruption and encourage you to scan the mail standing
over the trashcan. It'd be better ot find a way to not have the stuff you
don't want left undelivered in the first place...)
The structure of mail lists make them really tough to be flexible -- you
can't just set up a temporary list for a hot topic easily, because of the
logistics of the server and everyone having to sign up and everything.
I've mulled it over a lot, and just don't have any answers, other than
finding ways to enable this granularity and flexibility, and I don't see any
way to do that via mail lists. So I'm working towards web/email hybrids
instead, with more end-user flexibility in what they choose to ssee, how
they choose to have it delivered and the like.
> Good idea. A lot of problems go away when the listowner can
> edit before production.
The difference between reading the slush pile and reading the magazine. If
you have the resource, you can do a LOT through active editing. But you're
trading off man-hours and timeliness, and you succeed only as well as your
reader's vision of what's good matches your editor's...
And it's very time consuming.
> and as a
> consequence I am the only one who regularly acts the complete fool.
No, you aren't. And if you don't believe me, I'll caper and ring my bells at
you again....
--
Chuq Von Rospach, Internet Gnome <http://www.chuqui.com>
[<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> = <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> = <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>]
Yes, yes, I've finally finished my home page. Lucky you.
I like you. You remind me of when I was
young and stupid.
