[Sigia-l] Anyone suggest a better global list?

[eric scheid]

On 31/12/2010, at 2:39, Skot Nelson <skot at penguinstorm.com
<mailto:skot at penguinstorm.com> > wrote:

> That Ziya occasionally stirred up positive discussion was more an accidental
> side effect of the sheer volume of posts than through intent.

Indeed.

Disagreement and criticism are both virtue neutral, in the same way fire is
neither good nor evil. Disagreement can be done in a way that builds and
strengthens a community, and it can be done in a way which fractures,
exhausts, and destroys a community.

FWIW, I've seen other lists die the same way: one hyperactive participant
posts voluminously, obnoxious as all get out, with various defenders
supporting free speech ... and slowly the variety of voices thins out. I was
administrator of one list that went that way, and was thus privy to the list
of subscribers. I graphed the subscriber numbers a few months later and the
decline was quite dramatic and undeniable.

I found a graph I did at the time... http://bit.ly/e7F9zj

You can see that while discussion volume (if not diversity of voices)
continued, that list nonetheless was being decimated behind the scenes.

The noisy individual left soon after, and there was no one left to fill the
vacuum. 


e.