OT: Listserver Humor (or deja vu all over again)



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)

        So you see we are not so different after all.
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