If you’ve been on email discussion lists for any length of time, you’ve probably noticed that every list seems to go through the same life cycle:
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1. Initial enthusiasm
People introduce themselves and gush about how wonderful it is to find kindred souls.
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2. Evangelism
People moan about how few folks are posting and brainstorm recruitment strategies.
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3. Growth
More people join, more lengthy threads develop, and occasional off-topic threads pop up.
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4. Community
Lots of threads (some more relevant than others). Information and advice is exchanged; experts help experts and newcomers alike; friendships develop; newcomers are welcomed; everyone feels comfortable participating.
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5. Discomfort with diversity
Message volume increases dramatically; not every thread interests every reader; signal-to-noise complaints begin; more bandwidth is wasted complaining than discussing.
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6a. Smug complacency and stagnation
Purists flame “old” questions and humor; newbies are rebuffed; traffic drops; interesting discussions move to private email; purists congratulate themselves for keeping the list “pure.”
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6b. Maturity
A few people quit in a huff; the rest stay near stage 4, with stage 5 popping up briefly; many people wear out their delete key, but the list lives contentedly ever after.