Subject: Listserve Communication

Posted by Sharon Villines on 9/16/2009
In Reply To:Listserve Communication Posted by Lees N. Stuntz on 9/16/2009

Message:

I too am looking forward to the new input and hope for enlivened discussion. I've found the discussion so sparse as to be almost non- existent so I hope that will change. I'm a new relative comer to this topic and joined hoping to learn from the list.

I also support keeping the list as a list. I moderate a lot of lists and started an alternate list to this one on YahooGroups as I prefer their format for posting and moderation. (Having to respond to the server that I did indeed send the message I just sent and then having to delete a message that says my post was posted, I find frustratingly
unnecessary.) I also value the easy access to other YahooGroups features like posting files, calendar, etc. I was hoping that the freer format would produce more discussion but it hasn't, partly because I was suddenly distracted by personal obligations (like making a living) but still there seems to be some reluctance or disinterest in discussion, even to responding to questions.

Email lists and forums appeal to different kinds of thinkers. Forum advocates like information to appear orderly, to have it sorted and categorized. Themselves to be involved in the orderly placement and connection of ideas. They want the questions to be clear, to respond to questions, and to comment on other responses. They like going to a site as one goes to a group meeting and looking around to see what people are saying. They like not being distracted by their inbox but to read they feel like reading when they want to read it.

Email list readers are happy with information and responses coming spontaneously and immediately, in no order except that which they are sent. No sorting, which can feel like a form of censorship or forced relationship. They like access from their own email program, usually mixed in with other email -- newspapers, notes from friends, demands for attention to bills, etc. The unpredictable relationships are interesting and energizing rather than tiring, confusing, or illogical. There is no need to go looking for new postings, which the email reader can forget to do anyway since so much information is right in front of them, on their own desktop.

Forum readers like to sort information into set categories; email list readers like to do their own sorting, if any at all. To keep their own files.

The ideal would seem be having both, with the email archived to set topics along with the forum posts, but the emailers would be criticizing the information sorting, and the forumers criticizing the failure to isolate topics into separate emails. The two don't mix well.

Sharon