This is a somewhat long discussion of the volume question. The bottom line
is no changes yet, so if you don't want to wade through this feel free to toss
it, you won't log in one morning for a rude surprise.
First off, thanks to those who have responded, both privately and on the
list. The main point of my threat to make this a digest-only list was to
get some reasonable discussion about the traffic volume, and whether or not
it really is a problem. I appreciate the praises, though it was really the
complaints for which I was fishing. And thanks to all of you for not making
a big point of the irony in generating so much traffic about the traffic!
So far, the majority of folks think that the volume is high, but not so
high that it requires drastic measures. I myself tend to agree with this,
as a reader I deal with the volume by just ignoring some postings. I do
save them all though, whether I read them or not. And don't be mislead,
I was NOT volunteering to make it a moderated digest!
This brings up the point of my workload as list administrator. It is hard
to say just how much work it is, as I don't keep track of time spent on it.
Once in a while I think it would be nice to know for sure just how much time
it takes to deal with the list, broken down into just reading stuff as a
regular member and dealing with list requests, archiving, ftp maintenence
and such. But adding up that time might be a folly akin to keeping an exact
running total of every dollar spent on each of my cars - I DON'T want to know!
The bottom line is that I don't really feel the need to unburden myself of
this work just yet. Hoosier has reasonable connectivity, good name service
and at the moment enough room for the stuff in the ftp directories. But if
you feel I've been too cranky lately and want to take over, let me know.
Just what is the traffic like on this list? There are about 230 address in
the direct and digest mailing lists. About a dozen of these are local
exploders, so for the sake of argument let's say there are 300 people who
read this list. In February, there were 698 or so articles sent to the list.
These articles came from 138 different people, for an average of just over
two articles per member, and 5 per poster. But the real distribution of who
sent stuff during the 29 days of February looks something like this:
# of posts 36 31 25 24 22 21 18 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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# of people 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 7 3 5 5 4 4 4 4 9 12 18 53
who sent this many
The majority of folks who send in stuff do so about once a week or less, and
there are those who have a comment on every single subject that comes along.
The numbers above may not be that accurate, but should be close enough for
our purposes. Remeber, if anyone ever tells you that "You can't argue with
the facts!" tell them "Sure you can. line 'em up and call them statistics!"
The main arguments so far seem to be:
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1. No sweat, I can handle the current volume
This is a common attitude, and certainly is nice to know. Folks who
have some knowledge and reasonable mail tools fall into this category,
I wish everyone did.
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2. The volume is a bit much, I'd like to see it reduced.
Another common attitude. Reduction in volume, at this point, can only
come from self discipline. Here's the last part of the SOL Welcome
file that Lawrence Buja wrote up:
- Also, be assured that you are among friends here. While constructive
criticism is always welcome, particularly where safety is involved,
please don't waste our time with inflammatory or null-content
postings. Public flames of other members are especially frowned
upon. If you have a problem with something or someone, it is
recommended that you discuss it privately.
Other options include local, private lists for the chit chat, where
it doesn't get out of hand. For instance, there are about half a
dozen folks on a list for the VTR Autocross Board folks, and sometimes
we prattle on about odd things, but the same attitude with a matrix
of 300 people just doesn't work.
Better mail handling tools at the destination are another help, again
an example is on hoosier. where the daily 100K or so of SOL bounces and
delays are put in a separate file where they can be ignored for a while,
rather than interfering with work.
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3. The volume is too great, make it a newsgroup
To answer this, I'll include here what I just happened to see this morning
in rec.autos.tech. In some article a hapless hotrodder writes in some
reasonable questions about
>A 1979 Camaro with a 305, bored 30 with dual exhaust headers.
>2 Problems:
> Every 6 months I have to replace the Header Gaskets.
> Every 6 months I have to replace the Starter.
>What can I do to stop it??
>Please E-mail... I cant read 30 messages a day!
He is answered, E-mail request blatantly ignored, by the wonderfully
enlightening comment:
BUY A FORD !!!!!!!!
Now replace Chevy with <your least favorite marque> and Ford with <your
favorite marque>, and you'll see what sort of technical help you can get
from the net. If someone wanted to create a rec.autos.british, alt.alvis
or whatever, feel free to do so. This mailing list will remain that, a
mailing list. It can be set up at your site to be fed into a local
newsgroup if that is what you really want.
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4. The volume is too great, get me outta here!
This is the type of comment that started me wondering about this all.
It saddens me to think that folks sign on hoping for one thing, but
getting something completely different. There really isn't much I,
or anyone else can do about trying to please everybody all the time.
It just won't happen.
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The result so far is this. From now on, I think I'll put all new members
on the digest list so they can get a feel for the volume and content of the
list without getting scared away right off the bat. It shouldn't take folks
too long to see if they want to stay on the digest, get dropped completely
or take the plunge and swim amongst those on the interactive list.
I also think that this round of discussion has been enough to get folks to
think for at least a moment before they send off yet another comment about
going through the streets of Podunk, steering around Miatas with their knees
as they peer through the side curtains looking for the proper shade of red.
[Did I miss anything?]
One reply which came to me was from Scott Fisher, and I will quote a salient
passage here:
I used to think the list was like a bunch of Britcar owners heading
down to the local pub to quaff a couple of brews and lie to each
other about how wonderful their cars were. I guess it still is, but
it seems that as the group got bigger, we've attracted people who want
to go to the pub for different reasons, like picking up broads or
getting into fights.
I want to hear the lies about how wonderful the cars were, as do others.
But where do we draw the line, how can anyone say what is and is not a
proper post? I only edit the address list, I don't want myself, or anyone
else for that matter, to become a posting patrol. For instance, going back
to the stats above, which would be better for the list, dropping off the
53 postings done by the 53 people who sent in only one, or taking the two
most prolific off and losing their 66 messages? Either way, the list would
be different, and probably not at all better.
In summary, I think the status quo is acceptable to a vast majority of this
list, *IF* we all use a little restraint, common sense and courtesy.
mjb.
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