Life cycle of internet groups - no direct Audi content, but this applies to us

[Mike Arman]

Life cycle of internet groups - no direct Audi content, but this applies to us



The Natural Life Cycle Of Mailing Lists

Nat Nagel (KatNagel at eznet.net) sent this terrific piece to the EARLY-M
mailing list in December 1994. It is the best description of the social
development of a mailing list I've read. 

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). 

6.Finally: 

A. 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 

B. 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). 



Looks to me like "our" q-list made it to stage 6-B - a pat on the back to
all of us, and especially to our revered list-meister, Dan S.

Best Regards,

Mike Arman