Recently, my day has looked like this: I wake up, check my email, get a flurry of new posts from project members in Europe. Since I'm reading them all at once, I naturally respond to them all at once.
This of course causes everyone in Europe to get a flurry if emails from me. A few hours later, Dennis, out in Seattle, wakes up, reads his email and sees a bunch of emails from me, responding to a bunch of emails from Europe. Like me (presumably), he reads them all at once and responds. Then, at the end of my afternoon, Jean, in Australia, wakes up, checks her email, and sees a mess, and starts responding. Presumably those in Europe see these posts, plus any late posts from Dennis, a few hours later, and then we repeat. I assume this perception is not mine alone, and happens to others, in different orderings, depending on your time zone. We can't repeal timezones, of course. But I think we can improve the situation a little. What I'm thinking I will start doing is: 1) When I wake up, I'm going to read all of my emails before I respond to a single post. There is nothing really so urgent that it requires an immediate response. And sometimes I'm surely going to find out that someone already responded to the point I was going to make. 2) Instead of responding to multiple posts in a thread, I'll aggregate my points, aim for one summary response per thread where possible. 3) I'll focus more. My priorities may not be the same as yours, but I do have priorities. Not everything is equally important. I don't need to comment on everything. If others can think about these observations, and maybe adopt related practices, I think we'll make the mailing list much more digestible. Regards, -Rob
