Date: Fri, 23 Jun 1995 12:19:46 -0400 (EDT) From: engcubbi-AT-ACS.EKU.EDU Subject: Re: Too much talk Malgosia (slight wail) Here I am trying to save my hands, and you keep posting such interesting issues that I end up having to respond to. :) The issue of unsubbing to active lists is a matter of the kind of discourse people expected to take place on the list. The truth is that very active lists and news groups develop a casual spirit among regulars that results in posts that are often off the stated topic of the group or list because people start revealing aspects of their own lives so as to know one another better. Meanwhile others subscribe to the list or group very focused on the topic and become frustrated by the off-topic community development. It's the case on the majority of lists and groups I'm familiar with. It becomes a question of the ratio of on-topic to off-topic posts. One newsgroup I follow went to a system of heading subject lines with WOTP for "warning: off topic post." The group still has to deal with the tension though because by its nature as a tv fan group for Mystery Science Theater 3000, topics that start off on-topic often lead elsewhere. That is ultimately a situation the group needs to thrash out for itself. Laurie, really shutting up this time On Fri, 23 Jun 1995, Malgosia Askanas wrote: > Let me pose the opposite problem, which I actually find much more > perplexing: that when a list becomes very active, many people unsub, and > they are most frequently the very people whose presence on the list > could be most valuable. This, to me, is a really hard nut to crack. > Perhaps it could be solved by having, from the very start, a digest > option for each list, so that instead of unsubbing people would sub to > the digest. But I am not sure they would. Fact is, it is much harder > to keep people on a very active list than on a moribund one. Hee hee. > > > -m > ------------------
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