I first saw this little essay about 5 years ago and it still holds true
today. All mailing lists go through a lifecycle that ends up either where
this list (and several others I'm on) is: a cordial community of people
helping each other out and discussing a common interest OR where the list
you mentioned is.
The Natural Life Cycle of Mailing Lists
Kat Nagel
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).
6a. 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
6b. 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).
John Neff said:
>
> Folks,
> I just had a very rude awakening to the realization of how good of a list
> we
> have here.
>
> Two days ago I joined a Yahoo group devoted to the manufacturer of my
> travel
> trailer. Based on past experience on this list, DiRT, 3rd and 4th gen
> F-Body lists, I expected to find a group of people who are knowledgeable
> about their TT's and are eager to share their knowledge and experiences
> with
> the rest of the group, but especially those who are new to the group. How
> wrong I was. Turns out my description of them being DEVOTED to the
> manufacturer was all to much a reality.
>
> There were a couple of people besides myself who have had some warranty
> issues with the manufacturer. The manufacturer has been denying warranty
> work to us stating the areas in question is the owners responsibility to
> maintain even one day after signing the papers. In my case it was a
> leaking
> roof. After nearly a month of trying to get this resolved I bought a tube
> of
> rubber roof sealant for $8.00 and will repair the area myself in about 15
> minutes. This is on a 9 month old unit which has a 1 year bumper to
> bumper
> warranty plus a 12 year roof warranty.
>
> I was actually told by one person that in their opinion I would never be
> happy and should sell the trailer and take up another hobby altogether.
> They
> said this simply because I asked someone how I am supposed to maintain
> (the
> common thread was that neither myself or the other two people had
> properly
> maintained their TT's) a brand new unit to prevent leaks that were
> happening
> when I bought it but never saw until the first rain. Two other people
> replied that they agreed with this person and wished the group was
> moderated
> so messages such as mine would be deleted before they ever hit the list!
> In
> the nearly 10 years I have been on various email lists, this is the first
> time I have seen such behavior aimed at either myself or anyone else on
> the
> list. Needless to say, I have unsub'd.
>
> Anyway, thanks for letting me vent, even if you didn't give me prior
> approval :)
>
> Take care everyone - even those I don't always agree with.
>
> John
> http://lonestar.texas.net/jndneff/dakota/dakota.html
>
> PS, the Dak still pulls the trailer without any problems!
>
>
-- J Wynia Pragmapool, Inc. www.pragmapool.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Mar 01 2004 - 00:34:04 EST