[pct-l] Flame exchanges re annoying posts

[Tortoise]

I think this list is at 6B.


Tortoise

<> He who finishes last, wins! <>

I switched to Mac OSX rather than fight Windows
Using Mozilla Thunderbird  http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/



Dan Hogan wrote:
> I used the following in an Email list I once managed.
> ************************************************************
>
> 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. a. 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-
>
> b. 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).
>
>                             ~~~
>
> This text was pulled from the archives of the list-managers
> discussion list and reproduced in full here (the author is
> unknown).
>
> Dan Hogan 
>
>
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