>Discussion of things other than GURPS. (This mailing list hasn't exactly >been super-lively of late even for GURPS discussion...) > >Roger
I had to smile at that comment above... Usually, when a mailing list is supplanted by a forum, the mailing list tends to die out. People like the convience of being able to sort out topics of interest from topics of no interest. What is missing however, is that sense of community where although you may not be interested in the topic of how many oxen are required to pull a plow, you might know the answer well enough to contribute it to the ongoing discussion. When you're involved in a Forum, you tend to ignore topics that are not viewed directly in the mailing list's activity. Instead of getting 200 email posts to the mailing list, now you only see the 5 you are interested in for something like GURPS TRAVELLER. You don't see the comments about economics, nor the posts about GM problems running a campaign, nor the issues that might arise from a night's game play as far as internally consistent politics. Also, once you settle into your nice comfortable niche, you tend not to look outside of it - which to my mind, can act to stifle any further potential growth in other areas. That is why I mentioned "what can I gain from joining, and what can I contribute" Both are flip sides of the same coin. People need to have a reason to congregate together. Lacking a reason, the congregation grows smaller month by month, week by week, day by day until the congregation has evaporated entiredly, leaving behind a ghost archive stored away on someone's hard drive, or perhaps stored on a server hard drive, never to be accessed - forgotten that it even existed. When you keep in daily touch on the list, and you suddenly notice that someone hasn't been posting for the last month, you might be motivated to send an email to the individual saying "Hey there, haven't seen you post in a bit. Are you ok?" Getting an email like that can sometimes make all the difference if you're down in the dumps, or perhaps sick, or what have you. It says "Hey, people notice if I'm not here or not". That is one primary reason I'm not too enamoured of the Forums. I'm also only too aware of what happens when a forum becomes dominated (or a mailing list for that matter!) by a clique of people whose "politically correct way of thinking" can be sufficient to drive away other potential contributors to the forum/mailing list. I think that's a shame actually, because sometimes, the clique has it wrong but derives comfort in being surrounded by other wrong thinking individuals. Other times, the person who's viewpoint may be wrong, may spark a piece of creativity that supercedes the original "wrongness" as it were. Forums to me, are too much of a "blinkered community" and blind people to the other good stuf. To that end Roger? Would you be so kind as to send me an invite to the group you mentioned? It costs me nothing, and perhaps I can add a little spice to it. :) What I probably should do while I've the time on my hands, is write another Alaconius Lecture. :) _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
