Now might be as good a time as any to post this classic from the dawn of the
Internet:
*Originally Posted to Gleason Sackman's
Net-Happenings<http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/net-hap/index.html>
> *
>
> Date: Wed, 5 Apr 1995 07:07:16 -0600
> From: Mike Gurstein <mikeg@nywork2.undp.org>
> To: Multiple recipients of list <futurework@csf.colorado.edu>
> Subject: Fwd: Life cycle of Lists (fwd)
> ---------------------
> Forwarded message:
> From: mforster@findhorn.org (Michael Forster)
> To: communitarians@civic.net
> Date: 95-03-31 07:57:23 EST
>
> This seemed like a good time to post this item from the Humor List.
> Michael Forster
>
> 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)
>
-- Jim Milles Vice Dean for Legal Information Services and Director of the Law Library Professor of Law University at Buffalo Law School 208 O'Brian Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260 (716) 645-2089, jgmilles@buffalo.edu http://ClaimID.com/jmilles http://www.retaggr.com/Card/jmilles
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