So folks, @ which stage are we w/ our listserv???
 
==================================================
                 Doug Easterling
  Director, Institutional Planning and Research
           Sinclair Community College
             444 West Third Street
              Dayton, Ohio  45402
   Phone: (513) 226-2854 Fax: (513) 226-3080
    Internet Address: [log in to unmask]
==================================================
 
 
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 7 Feb 1996 10:02:03 -0600
From: Donna Kornmueller <[log in to unmask]>
To: Multiple recipients of list COMMCOLL <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: This was forwarded to me and thought the list might enjoy
 
From:   VAXF::IN%"[log in to unmask]"  7-FEB-1996 10:00:53.83
To:     IN%"[log in to unmask]"  "FRIUG"
CC:
Subj:   Life Cycle of Mailing Lists
 
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)
 
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)
 
 
@@@@
 
 
 
Return-path: <[log in to unmask]>
Received: from lynx.csn.net by VAXF.COLORADO.EDU (PMDF V5.0-4 #12962)
 id <[log in to unmask]>; Wed,
 07 Feb 1996 09:52:55 -0600 (MDT)
Received: (from majordo@localhost) by lynx.csn.net (8.6.12/8.6.9)
 id LAA22961 for friug-include; Wed, 07 Feb 1996 11:59:18 -0500
Received: from teal.csn.net (teal.csn.net [199.117.27.22])
 by lynx.csn.net (8.6.12/8.6.9) with ESMTP id JAA22952 for
 <[log in to unmask]>; Wed, 07 Feb 1996 09:59:15 -0700
Received: from [205.168.106.12] (p12.UCB.dialup.csn.net [205.168.106.12])
 by teal.csn.net (8.6.12/8.6.9) with SMTP id JAA17251 for <[log in to unmask]>; Wed,
 07 Feb 1996 09:59:10 -0700
Date: Wed, 07 Feb 1996 10:07:59 -0700
From: [log in to unmask] (Dave Sacher)
Subject: Life Cycle of Mailing Lists
X-Sender: [log in to unmask]
To: FRIUG <[log in to unmask]>
Message-id: <v01530500ad3d604b7efb@[199.117.100.25]>
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT