Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Newbie Comment / Decline of cohousing-L

[Fred H. Olson (fholson]

>From my point of view as list manager...

Of late I think there has been less activity on the list (I periodically
log the number of messages per month but can never seem to keep track of
that log...)  Clearly there are a variety of reason that may account for 
this (there's no easy way to know for sure).  Sharon does identify one
below that is particularly relevant:

On Mon, 12 Jan 1998, Sharon Villines wrote:

> On less discussion: When I hit reply, the message automatically enters
> the address of the poster, not the cohousing list. 

When cohousing-L moved to a new host (2 years ago next month!) the
handling of headers got changed.  Among list owners there is ongoing
debate as to how they should be handled.

On Cohousing-L now, for most subscriber's mail software the easiest or
default "To:" address on replies is the author rather than back to the
list. As someone else pointed out this has result that fewer replies get
posted to the list.  This default could be changed... 

Some of replies "should" be posted for everyone and some should
not.  In general if you think others will be interested in your reply,
send it to the list.  If it's personal definitely dont send it to 
the list (dont worry if you make a mistake, buried in the archives
are a few personal replies I and others wish we could take back :)

In any case, try to take a moment to consider where your message is being
sent.  

Also take time to carefully consider the subject line - PARTICULARLY IF
YOU ARE A DIGEST SUBSCRIBER (yes I intended to emphasize that :) 

On another reason some folks dont post as much from a reply from
Stuart Staniford-Chen (who I'm sure would send his greetings):

Fred>> I shouldn't add to your accumulated mail but couldn't resist :)
 
Stuart> I used to love email, but not so much any more!  Now I just 
Stuart> can't keep up with it. 

I dont see the decline in volume as a big problem in general but the
decline in useful replies is regretable.  We have been amazingly stable at
around 500 subscribers.  There are still mentions of "300 messages a
month"  that I have not purged.  It was never true -- confusion between a
peak and a trend... In the last 2 years I think the average has been
somewhat less than 100 per month but varies a lot.  Fortunately the list
can go into a lull and pop out of it quickly if there is a need or desire
-- as Rob has demonstrated.  Hmmm, Rob the rabble rouser:) 

Fred 

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