The rise and fall of email discussion lists
I’ve been ruminating on James Farmer’s post Why I hate listservs; I generally like the email discussion list format, but I find I agree with several points he makes.
Listservs are often dominated by a few people. Too true. One list I’m on has over 3,000 subscribers, but about 30 (a guestimate) actually participate. A list I no longer participate in had similar numbers.
Listservs are often ‘clubs’ of the worst kind. Let me talk about this from a different angle. Often, there is a certain amount of “political correctness” that one must engage in to participate. Depending on the clique that dominates the group, this can be frustrating or a big pat-on-the-back fest. About a year ago I left a list because of what I thought was some disrespectful communication that was taking place from dominant clique members. I challenged them and was ridiculed, yet the moderators determined that my witty response was too off-topic to be posted to the list. That’s when that list jumped the shark for me.
Why do I continue to praise email discussion lists? Probably because of the types of lists I join. I like email lists for technical, how-to type questions. The advantage is being able to ask a question and receive an answer right in my email. I answer other listers questions when I can. These types of lists don’t have the political correctness problems I disdain, and the fact that they may be dominated by a few doesn’t really matter since the questions are of a technical nature. (I don’t care what your politics are if you can help me get this program to do what I want!)
For big-picture discussions, however, I’m going to agree with James. I don’t like the “intrusion” of so many emails in my inbox. And, there is some need for it to be relatively synchronous or else you’ll have little chance of being heard.
I am rather fond of the RSS tools I can use now to learn about what other people are doing with technology for teaching and learning. Let me plug a few feeds in my aggregator and pick and choose what I’m interested in and I have the freedom to respond when I feel like it, never having to leave “lurker” mode.
Soon I’ll try to post my guide to discussion list personality types.
