Looking for a NH mail list talking about Linux

Bill Sconce sconce at in-spec-inc.com
Tue Mar 27 12:45:24 EDT 2007


Seriously...

"Yet despite three decades of descriptions of [mailing-list
dysfunction], it is often treated by designers as a mere side-effect,
as if each eruption [...] was surprising or inexplicable."
   
"The Tragedy of the Conversational Commons"
   
"In the case of mailing lists (and, again, other shared conversational
spaces), the commonly held resource is communal attention. The group
as a whole has an incentive to keep the signal-to-noise ratio high
and the conversation informative, even when contentious. Individual
users, though, have an incentive to maximize expression of their
point of view, as well as maximizing the amount of communal attention
they receive."
   
  -From "Clay Shirky's Writings About the Internet", upon which I rely
   when a temptation strikes to "fix the list".  
   
   I believe that Shirky demonstrates that "fixing" a mailing list is
   not possible.  Letting go makes it easier to relax and enjoy...
   Doesn't it?
     
   http://shirky.com/writings/group_user.html


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