On Mon, 28 May 2001 10:16:37 -0500 (CDT)
David W Tamkin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Not my experience. Nearly all lists on Yahoogroups and Topica are
> set RTL because greenhorn listowners think "it encourages
> discussion" or "it makes it easier" and others who learn the
> drawbacks give in to members who are used to the tyros' lists and
> object to having to learn a different habit for a different list.
> I'd have to say that the RTS/RTL ratio has plummeted.
I recently surveyed one of my lists which has been RTL for several
years abouit moving to RTL. It was universally (more than half the
membership) denounced. The main complaints were:
1) Threads would wander off list and be lost from the list
archives.
2) Private off-list discussions would be encouraged,
disenfranchising lurkers or non-thread participants.
3) Threads would tend to fract more quickly
#1 in particular was seen as a huge problem with many lurkers and
members who read/participate in the lists via the archives coming
forward (my web archives support posting replies to archived
messages via a web browser). The current compleatness of the list
archives, that they are in fact a canonnically compleat was
repeatedly referenced as being a Good Thing.
The general comment on #2 was that enough of that happened already,
and if anything, we need less of it (the membership has a tendency
to be individually parochial outside their specialised
camp/employer/hobby horse).
Aside: I originally set RTL back in '96 to increase internal
feedback on the list by creating a positive feedback loop WRT
messages, and thus more rapidly growing traffic and thus shared
experience and community.
--
J C Lawrence [EMAIL PROTECTED]
---------(*) http://www.kanga.nu/~claw/
The pressure to survive and rhetoric may make strange bedfellows
