[Talk] Mailing List Memberships

[David Lloyd]

Hmmmmm....

I should state that:

* I am the secretary (well sort of) of the SA Chapter
* Technically I'm the mailing list administrator of the SA Chapter

I'm having a debate with various people about membership of the mailing
list.

Specifically:

* The President (David Bullock) and I are virtually the only people who
post to the list

* Others who post are generally responding to something one of us have
said

* The list was SILENT for the past month until I made the next meeting
announcement

I conclude that there aren't enough SA-AUUG members to make the list
lively OR we haven't hit on a subject to get people talking, to branch
and so forth. That is to say, we haven't found a subject which goes
branching so much that the talk continues.

So, we have this idea for a local community wireless network which needs
a mailing list. Some people interested in it are not AUUG members. I
have publicly stated that, for the purposes of conducting initial
discussions -- until such discussions become so voluminous to merit
their own lists [the local secretary, by the way, will decide that ;-P]
-- I will invite discussions on the AUUG list AND that I will subscribe
non-AUUG members for such discussions.

This has the following benefits:

1) Someone doesn't have to maintain yet another list
 - if another list is setup, then I would argue that given it's under
SA-AUUG's request then the Secretary of the local chapter is the list
maintainer

2) A list that is essentially dead becomes alive

3) AUUG-SA can blatantly advertise AUUG benefits
 - for example, at this meeting Greg Lehey sold some wireless cards for
a significant discount ONLY IF you were or became an AUUG member
 - I believe there were at least two new memberships because of this on
the night and one promised membership in June
 - This says "if you are an AUUG member you could join in on this too"

Others say, though, letting non-members onto the list detracts from the
value of the list.

But the members don't post to the list.

*hmmm*

So does it have ANY value at all?

;-P


David Lloyd
-- 
Train comes I don't know it's destination...
  It's a one way ticket to a mad man's situation!
  (Overload - Sugababes)