--- begin forwarded text From: "Roger Koppl" <KOPPL@FDUSVR1.FDU.EDU> Organization: FAIRLEIGH DICKINSON UNIVERSITY To: austrianecon@agoric.com Date: Wed, 14 Feb 1996 12:38:57 EDT Subject: FW: Laugh Of The Day - Fri, Feb 02 1996 (fwd) Priority: normal Sender: owner-austrianecon@agoric.com Precedence: bulk Reply-To: AustrianECON@agoric.com I got this from a colleague. Apparently the source is LaughWEB. Sound familiar? Roger ---------- Forwarded message ---------- ***************************************************************** Be sure to visit LaughWEB (http://www.misty.com/laughweb/) ***************************************************************** *File Description: The Natural Life Cycle Of a Mailing List* THE NATURAL LIFE CYCLE OF MAILING LISTS Every list seems to go through the same cycle: 1. Initial enthusiasm (people introduce themselves, and gush alot 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). ****************************************************************************** LAUGH OF THE DAY - A service of LaughWEB (http://www.misty.com/laughweb/). To subscribe, send e-mail to majordomo@world.std.com, with text: subscribe lotd email_address To subscribe to lotd, point your web browser to: http://world.std.com/~joeshmoe/laughweb/lotd_subscribe.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Roger Koppl Associate Professor Economics and Finance Fairleigh Dickinson University Madison, NJ 07940 USA Internet: Koppl@fdusvr1.fdu.edu Phone: (201) 443-8846 Fax: (201) 443-8804 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com) e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "Reality is not optional." --Thomas Sowell The e$ Home Page: http://thumper.vmeng.com/pub/rah/