The Natural Life Cycle of Mailing Lists

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The Natural Life Cycle of Mailing Lists

                                     Kat Nagel - <A HREF="mailto:KatNagel at eznet.net">KatNagel at eznet.net</A> 

                    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).






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