Homestead mailing list

[lurine AT com-pair.net]

I belong to multiple e-groups/list.  One has over 5500 members. 
Another has over 3700 members and stil another has about 1200 members.

The one that has 5500 members is homesteading group.  There is a list
owner and there are moderators.  They do a fair to middling job. 
Sometimes they are inclined to forget that the instant they send out
a "end of converstion" notice is not when people get it.  That there
may be many, many e-mails that come before it and people generally
respond to e-mails as they drop into their inbox.  However, it is
obvious from the number of folks that belong that it is a relatively
happy list.

The list with 3700 members is not a homesteading list but addresses a
very important part of what folks need to know if they are going for
self-sufficient homesteading.  The owner of that list has 3 lists. 
One is a view only list.  The main list.  And a list called Chatter
where anything that is too far off topic goes and that includes
politics, jokes, just plain folks talking about stuff that isn't the
focus of the main list.  The Chatter list has never been moderated
and LOTS of politics are discussed there.

The third list is moderated but not moderated.  You might get an
off-list e-mail or there might be a notice that everyone is assumed
to be an adult that is on the list and that they should know how to
use their delete key and how to block people they don't want to
"listen" to.

All of these lists are ancient.  Or at least ancient in Yahoo terms.
The last list goes back to the 90s and was on AOL and then whatever
the heck the other ones were before Yahoo.  We're talk the dark ages
of e-list, back when AOL had boards.  They are still alive and well. 
Not quite as busy as they used to be but when something comes up
where folks need help, it springs back to life and help is given.

There are always going to be people on lists that don't want anyone
to disagree with them.  Everything they say is gospel.  And there are
always going to be people on lists that are "grumpy old men" and
don't want to answer newbee questions.  I think the first two lists I
mentioned handle this the best as they give a whole bunch of info at
the first of each month.  And, on the second list the list owner or
one or two of the oldest members will actually give a link to prior
conversations or stuff that is saved in the archieves that answer the
questions that the newbees have.

There are also always going to be people that play list hog and go on
and on and on about what they are doing.  That drives as many people
away as politics might.

I don't know how the server on this list works, so I don't know if
moderators can be "appointed" but one could open a second list on
Yahoo just for "chatter" and all things political, etc. could be
referred to that list.  Just a thought.

Lynda

---- Original Message ----
From: waltonrp AT gmail.com

>Hey Lee! 179 members is pretty good.  I think that your take on the
>list is
>an accurate one. One of the things that I've liked about this list
>over the
>years is that it's not heavily moderated. I'm on a few that are, and
>it can
>really make for a bad vibe.
>
>A list is it's members.