Date: Fri, 23 Jun 1995 12:00:06 -0400 (EDT)
From: engcubbi-AT-ACS.EKU.EDU
Subject: Re: moribund setup


It's not that this is so much an issue for spoons as it is for mailing 
lists in general, I think. Newsgroups as well. I'm not sure, but I think 
that in Usenet inactive groups are removed. I plan to ask about this in 
news.admin.misc because I'm curious about it. 

But, ok, you have a list available for people working in a particular 
field. That's fine. That *can be* a valuable resource for them. *But* how 
can it be a valuable resource if they aren't *using* it. It's like having 
a classroom set aside for only one course, but nobody takes the course, 
and the only people who ever enter the room are the janitors. People may 
want to take the course, but they're too busy or whatever and the space is 
never used. Or maybe the room was prepared for the course, and the first 
semester it was offered, it was packed. Then the next semester, not so 
many people signed up, and the third semester the course didn't make at 
all and so was canceled, but the room remains, unused.

I'm not arguing this with some sort of agenda about spoons. I'm really 
focused on the concept of lists in general and what they're for because I 
plan to do my dissertion on the structure of communication in lists 
and newsgroups. 

It seems to me if a list is silent, it might be more fruitful to figure 
out *why* it is silent rather than just say "If we build it, they will 
come, and if we build it, and they don't come, that's okay too."

Does the list need advertising to let people know it's available? Does it 
need an active moderator to raise topics for discussion? Does it need a 
core group to promote discussion?

I just have a problem with this idea of providing a space in case 
people want to talk about whatever, and if they don't, that's okay 
because the space is there in case they want to. As far as I'm concerned, 
the value isn't in the space, it's in the discussion. A space without 
discussion isn't useful to the people in the particular field. That's why 
I'm focused on the silence issue. Silence is a lack of discussion. If a 
list is silent, then I want to know why it's silent, why it's not serving 
as a resource for discussion, and what does it need in order to be able 
to serve its function as a resource? There comes a point when pragmatic 
issues raise their ugly heads, and we have to look at them and deal with 
them.

Take the Bakhtin list, for example. I have a strong commitment to 
Bakhtin and to a list on Bakhtin. When it's established, I plan to 
contact the people who expressed their interest in it, letting them know 
that it's up and running. I would make a .sig file advertising the list 
to be attached to every email or newsgroup post I make, so that people 
know it exists. But I would also work on the list itself, making sure 
that the subscribers had a message from me about something related to 
Bakhtin every week as seeds for any discussion that might emerge. As 
coordinator I want to make sure that the list has the material on it so 
that it can actually serve as a resource, rather than as just a place in 
case people want it.

This post has been too much typing all at once, so I'll be silent now.

Laurie

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