[Husker] Colorado's Situation... (fwd)

[Tom Risor]

I think we're pretty normal, Mike.

This is from John Suler's  The Psychology of Cyberspace c. 1996  
(though, I remember reading it somewhere in the early 90's before  
email took off).

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).


Tom Risor

Just like with my Harley, if you have to ask why I use Macs, you  
probably wouldn't understand.

On Dec 9, 2005, at 12:55 PM, Mike Nolan wrote:

>> This might be the biggest load of tripe ever served up
>> on this list.
>
> Either your memory is failing or you haven't been around long enough.
>
> Aside from the relevance to current events, most of the Solich talk  
> bores
> me anymore.  (It is worth noting that virtually ALL basketball threads
> bore me, too.)
>
> I also have some interest in who will coach at CU, but largely because
> the Huskeris play them every year.   (As I wrote when Barnett was  
> hired,
> he WAS a big thorn in the Husker's side but eventually he wore out
> his welcome, as I had also predicted.)
>
> Why can't we get back to a list where people talk about what they  
> want to,
> while being civil with each other?
>
> If people don't like a thread, they should know where the DELETE  
> key is.
> --
> Mike Nolan
>
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