Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Role for national co-housing organizion in disaster prep?

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Sep 3, 2008, at 1:02 PM, Robert Heinich wrote:

> I believe we should add another item: a cohousing-L alternative.
> Almost all of cohousing communication is done via this listserv.

I think this listserve has done more to advance cohousing than any  
other resource. It is immediately responsive and goes to the heart of  
what people want to know because they can ask questions and get them  
quickly. It also means that new people can sit in on the discussions  
between experienced cohousers. Often new people don't know what  
questions to ask so they can't ask them.

I think the Wiki's are a good idea because information can be  
organized and corrected.

I'm not a user of blogs or message boards because they are not as  
spontaneous and the information quickly gets buried.

I do not think it is a good idea for Cohousing-L to be a back up or to  
own the list. What happens when organizations own lists is that the  
organization begins to feel responsible for everything posted on it  
and for this reason will at some point or anther want to moderate  
messages to be sure they are appropriate. When lists are moderated in  
a way that reviews the messages before they are posted the messages  
come in batches. This kills lists.

For an email list to thrive, the discussion has to quirky and  
unpredictable, and the messages free flowing.

If something were to happen to Fred, although we all know he is  
everlasting, we could convert the Yahoo list Fred uses for digest  
readers. The archives would be searchable and easy for users to find.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing,Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org