This was posted to a mailing list I used to belong to.
Wonder where paleo is right now?

Robert

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
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).