Re: Replies to posts

[Beth.Rapp.Young@Rollins.Edu]

At the risk of bucking the trend, I'm afraid I'll have to add my voice to 
those of Wendy Wagner and David Beard about the traffic on WCENTER.  This
is not because I don't value the friendly "folksiness" and "spontaneity"
of the list, but because it is very hard to keep up with the volume of
messages.  More than once I've had problems with my allotted disk space
filling up, and it is very time-consuming to delete messages with out
software (oops, with "our" software), even if I don't read them first.
And I do check my messages daily, so this isn't because I abandon my
email for weeks at a time.

Perhaps a compromise:  people whose comments are simply, "me, too" with
no added discussion could try _very hard_ to remember to send messages
to an individual.  OR, perhaps those who offer syllabi, etc., can
have a "reply to individual" command placed in their message.  OR perhaps
those with syllabi etc. to offer can store them somehow on the listproc
and we can send requests to the listproc.  OR perhaps the WCENTER
"welcome" message could specifically urge people to send individual
requests to the sender, and tell us how to get a list of subscribers if
we are interested in seeing "who's out there."  OR perhaps the WCENTER
welcome message could make the point that wcenters come in many shapes
& sizes and one shouldn't be afraid to request syllabi from individuals.

I'd hate to see wcenter directors at schools without great email facilities
miss out on what this list has to offer . . . and I'd hate to see wcenter
become the kind of list with so many restrictions that it isn't any fun.
The compromises I brainstormed may be impossible, or already in place, but
I'm sure we can all come up with _some_ solutions.

I think the problem of overly heavy traffic is significant, not simply
a matter of some of us being too lazy to use the delete function.

And Wendy's point about "clique-ishness" is also a good one (though once
people follow the list for any length of time I'm sure they realize
what a friendly bunch this is).

Of course, all the above notwithstanding, _I'll_ remain subscribed
no matter what happens . . . .

Beth Rapp Young
Rollins College, Winter Park, FL
BYoung@Rollins.edu