RE: News/400's ClubTech section

-----Original Message-----
From:   Simon Coulter [SMTP:shc@flybynight.com.au]
Sent:   Saturday, July 15, 2000 5:02 AM
To:     MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
Subject:        Re: News/400's ClubTech section


Hello David,

I'll give you my opinion but I don't think I'll participate in discussion 
since it is
off-topic  :)

Chuck needs to learn some grammer -- you can't "unsubscribe to" a mailing 
list, only
unsubscribe FROM it.  (Interestingly, I went to the referenced site just 
before sending
this and GOSH! the reference has been changed -- surprise, surprise!)

There are two things that kill mailing lists; inactivity and volume. 
 Volume is
tolerated if the quality of the information is worth the effort. 
 MIDRANGE-L generates
80 odd items per day.  With the other lists the total is well over 100 
items per day.
Once the noise threshold exceeds the quality level people drop off.  They 
simply can't
be bothered to sift through the dross for the few (very few) grains of 
gold.  I notice
that many of the "old hands" are no longer with us.  I assume that is 
because there was
insufficient precious metal among the base.  The chatty nature of the list 
is more
disappointing than the inanity of many of the questions -- although the 
10's of answers
to simple questions still irritate me.

        I would suspect that "too much mail", regardless of how good the 
content, 
causes most people to unsubscribe within the first week.    It comes down 
to how well the subscriber know his e-mail package (to filter messages to 
different folders) , how patient his employer is about the subscriber 
receiving so much mail during working hours, and the subscribers' e-mail 
volume tolerance.

Most of the list participants are in the US.  That means they see the 
messages during
their working day.  They get the messages arriving in small groups and can 
process them
without much impact -- although I'd bet that it takes more time than you 
think (like
smoking -- smokers in a smoke-free environment should work 2.5 hours a week 
more than
non-smokers or get paid less!).  Those of us at other ends of the time zone 
face
upwards of 100 messages in the morning e-mail.  We get to see the 20 
answers to simple
questions, we get to see all the chat in one hit, it gets tiresome.

If you want the list to grow I think you may have to police it a little 
more and knock
a few threads on the head once the original question has been answered. 
 Perhaps you
can filter the answers? Especially the one word responses to gormless 
questions.  I
know policing it would be a big job but it would be easier if the list 
participants
policed themselves.  I've voiced this concern in the past.

Rejecting posts is a sure way to encourage unsubscribes.

Suggestions:
        1/ Since ~80% of the questions are answered by ~10% of the active 
participants
make sure the answer goes to the correct list.  If some twit asks a non-RPG 
related
question in RPG400-L then send the answer to MIDRANGE-L and a single sen  
tence to
RPG400-L saying "Answered in MIDRANGE-L".  If you all do this that will 
help with
inappropriate questions on the specialised lists.

        2/ Seriously consider waiting before answering the more trivial 
questions. 
Those are the ones that can be answered by any literate person excercising 
more than 3
brain cells in about half an hour.  The ones that could be answered by GO 
CMDXXX, or
CHG* [F4], or following the menu options (GO MAIN).  If the answer is easy 
enough you
KNOW someone else will get it (and doing so will allow the lurkers who may 
feel
inferior to answer so they get a "warm-fuzzy" from a sense of 
participation).

The lurker may also feel more encouraged to post in the future.

        3/ Cut the chat -- most people really don't want to know your oldest 
tape
drive, or what system you started on, or your first programming language, 
OR THE
CORRECT MODEL NUMBER OF 10-YEAR OLD TAPE DRIVE.  If there is truly interest 
in that
then ask David to create a geezer list and put that crap there.

<SNIP>

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