RE: Some thoughts on this Mailiing List

[John Fracisco <John.Fracisco (at) TRW.COM>]

The answers to your questions are rather easy to find out, if you use the
guidelines on the Laser NA Class website (http://www.laser.org), selecting
"Join the Laser E-mail List".

)-----Original Message-----
)From: Shevy Gunter [mailto:drlaser (at) roostergraphics.com]
)Subject: Some thoughts on this Mailiing List
)
)
) - How many people are subscribed to our List? (A time-series would be
nice.)

If a message is sent to majordomo@laser.org with the message "Help", you can
discover what types of commands can be sent to the majordomo software.  One
of the commands is "who laser", that returns the list of all people
currently subscribed to the laser list (721 as of this morning).  A time
series might be able to be collected if a script was written that collected
the information, but it would still need to processed, and I don't see its
value with correlation to particular messages.

) - How many people are subscribed to the List in Digest Form?

Similarly, send a message with the body "who laser-digest" to
majordomo@laser.org to find out that there are currently 262 people signed
up to receive the digest from of this e-mail list.

) - How many people follow the list postings from www.laser.org/archives?

This information can't be determined from any queries of the Laser majordomo
server (obviously), but I would suspect that it is small, and that most
people that use the archives are searching them for something particular
(posts about trailers for example).

) - What is the global geographical distribution of the subscribers (over
time)?

I can't think of an e-mail list software package that can do that and is
free like majordomo is.  If you examined the e-mail addresses returned in
the "who" query, you might be able to discern country domains.

) - At what rate do sailors unsubscribe from the list/digest? 

Same response as above.  I imagine that a script could be written to track
this, but what does it matter?  People get bored and leave the list.  People
change e-mail addresses.  People go on vacation and don't want their e-mail
box flooded with messages when they return.

) - Do we keep track of why people unsubscribe?

How would that be accomplished?

) - Who is responsible for the content policies of the list?

Will Sadler has provided some loose guidelines on the Laser.org website.
One of the "policies" is that it asks for all messages to be signed so that
the e-mail list users know who posted a message (without trying to decipher
sometimes cryptic e-mail addresses).

) - Who is responsible for the day-to-day maintenance of the list, including
maintenance of the links provided TO this Mailing List?

Will Sadler, the individual that created the mailing list.

)Where can I find such information?

This information is on the Laser Class NA website http://www.laser.org under
the "Join the Laser e-mail list" section.

)The Mailing List also seems like a little "clique" or a "private club"
)to me, where old-time subscribers exchange ideas without regard to
)bringing the new subscribers up to par, and thereby setting bad
)exemples. 
)
)It is, for instance,  interesting that, out of the blue, some "Will
)Sadler" can post a message complaining about the "remove" messages
)posted on the List without feeling the necessity to identify who he is.

People that subscribe to the e-mail list via the Laser Class NA website will
find Will Sadler's name there as list administrator.

)I wonder if we could all collectively shape up a bit before the rate of
)"remove" messages exceed the rate of "subscribe" messages. I say, let's
)shape up regardless of that. This mailing list needs to be engineered
)and managed more carefully, its standards must be publicized regularly
)and in alternative media and enforced, and also, it should not 
)be turned into a U.S.-only tool. 

We should not be seeing "remove" or "subscribe" messages.  Those are folks
that did not follow the instructions and/or did not save the message that
the majordomo e-mail software sent them when they subscribed.  I think that
the e-mail list works well right now, especially considering the time and
money (both negligble) being invested by the class association.  A couple of
years ago the e-mail list software attached a "footer" to all messages that
described how to unsubscribe from the list, and how to access the e-mail
archives.  It was a nice feature.

John Fracisco