Off-Topic Forum

[The Fenske's]

Could I add a few words regarding a very similar situation in another 
mailing list I
belong to?  The long and the short of it was that we created an off-topic email
list, and it was a smashing success for those who enjoy such discussions.

Now the details: The primary list was made up of fans of an American 
alternative
pop-rock band named Daniel Amos, and centered on discussions on their 
recordings,
the musicians, and information on tours, hard-to-find memorabilia, 
etc.  But quite often,
a maelstorm of off-topic fury would erupt, with OT-topics dominating the 
list, resulting
in hundreds of messages a day.  Often this would go on for several days, if 
not a week
or more.  Finally, the decision was made to start a new list, which people 
would join
only if they were interested.  The results?

1) Both lists have been going strong for several years now, and for the 
most part the
On-topic and Off-topic distinction has been preserved.  When a member or 
two slips up,
discussions usually get moved after a few messages over to the appropriate 
list.  But
the two lists keep fairly separate.  There isn't a lot of confusing 
back-and-forth between
them.  But be careful: the off-topic list might get more fun than the 
primary one!

2) The off-topic list generates, on average, 2-3 times the mail load of the 
on-topic list.
The people who love to chat about politics, religion, war, movies, or 
you-name-it are
very prolific.  They all love the secondary list, but still contribute 
strongly to both.

3) You can filter both lists to different mailboxes, and only read the few 
messages you
want from either.  I subscribe to both, but only skim the contents, and 
only read a few
of either when I have the time.  Sort of like I do with this list, which, 
by and large, I find
not terribly interesting (sorry!).  I'm interested in the coming Gemstone 
issues, in Rosa
stories, but not in the many details of Disney comics that many of you find 
so interesting.
But that's OK.  This list provides details I couldn't find elsewhere, and I 
can ignore the
stuff I don't like.  The same works with an Off-topic list.  You can mass 
delete the messages
each day if they don't appeal to you.  For that reason, I think another 
email list is
*vastly* preferable to message boards, where you have to be on-line, and 
wait for things
to load, etc.

Conclusion: Go for it.  If you don't like the second list, you won't be 
missing anything.
And the Disney-only subscribers won't feel frustrated at the OT chaffe that 
pollutes the
primary list.

Off course, the Off-topic police who inhabit the primary list become 
On-topic police on
the secondary list...ie, if someone on the Off-topic list brings up Disney, 
that would
be denounced as being on-topic and send off to the DCML.... so you see, it 
*can* be
confusing... :-)

Hope this helps!

Dave Fenske
... long time lurker...

At 05:22 PM 5/25/03 +0000, Rob Klein wrote:
>Hi everyone. I got several positive responses to the idea of an adjunct "OFF-
>TOPIC FORUM". They all feel it should be a Discussion Board, rather than an e-
>mailed message list of subscribers.  For Daniel: I have a suggestion that 
>might
>alleviate your fears of missing out on some Disney discussion. We could 
>have a
>RULE that when the topics move back into Disney Comics, the author MUST move
>the thread BACK TO DCML, by initiating a new posting. Unfortunately, I think
>whoever is the Discussion Board's moderator, will likely not have enough time
>to "monitor" the postings everyday to "enforce" that rule. On many boards,
>rulebreakers are "banned" from the board, and their names under their 
>original
>registration are blocked from making posts. WE wouldn't need that. Any of OUR
>members could be expected on the HONOUR SYSTEM to simply make a new post on
>DCML to cover the new ON-Topic thread started on the OFF-Topic forum.
>
>The reason why I WOULD NOT want to make the new discussion board totally
>independent of DCML is that I and several other DCML members would NOT go 
>over
>to a new discussion board every day just TO SEE IF A FELLOW DCML MEMBER 
>POSTED
>AN OFF-TOPIC THREAD THAT WE MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN. The topics come out of
>Disney Comics discussions. In addition, having the related "forum" be another
>mailing list would not be good, as most of us are already very busy, and
>probably wouldn't want ANOTHER bunch of mails coming every day.  The 
>reason why
>this wouldn't work is that we are ALL interested in Disney Comics, but we are
>not likely to be interested in all or even most of the "OFF-Topic topics". 
>Most
>of us will probably be interested in only a selected few of them.
>
>Those are the reasons why I HOPE that we can make a low maintenance,
>adjunct "Discussion Board" where topics that will be only of interest to a 
>few
>members can be discussed, freeing the real DCML from being polluted by so 
>much
>off-topic content.  But yet this system would allow some members to pursue
>these topics, directly, from their inspired inception, in an open discussion,
>instead of limiting it to two people in a private e-mail. Such ideas would 
>NOT
>be generated WITHOUT a DCML topic already started.  THAT is why I wouldn't 
>want
>us (Off-Topic fans) to move to a completely independent location.
>
>I have also sent this to Per. I understand that if such a set-up would be 
>a lot
>of extra work for him, that we probably shouldn't have it connected to DCML.
>But, I am hopeful.  What do you all think?
>
>Rob
>Klein
>
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