>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.Finally:
> 1.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
> 2.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).
>
>
>
>Last updated 10/2/96
>Vivian Neou's Home Page
>
>Jim Eggeling aka Jaime Lopez
>
>
>
>
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*********************************************
diane celia hodges
faculty of graduate studies
centre for the study of curriculum and instruction
university of british columbia,
vancouver, british columbia, canada V6T 1Z4
(604) 253-4807
dchodges who-is-at interchange.ubc.ca