Re: Is the list dead, the server down or what?

taliesin the storyteller wrote:
> * Eric Christopherson said on 2007-05-04 04:30:24 +0200
>> Does anyone have ideas about what happened to the list's
>> popularity?  Did a lot of members leave, or do they just lurk
>> now? (I know I don't  see a lot of the names I saw back around
>> 1999.)
>
> A lot of people were basically scared off due to the sheer
> amount of mail. Another thing that's happened is that there is
> now direct competition to CONLANG-L, not the spinnoff-lists, but
> things like the zompist bulletin board and other independent
> communities like various wikis etc.
>
> I still hang here, as I detest BB-systems.
I know what you mean. They're no substitute for mailing lists or
newsgroups. Not for regular readers, anyway; they can be convenient for
casual browsing on certain topics (no need for subscription). Newsgroups
are better for high-volume discussion groups than mailing lists since
you can browse the headers without downloading all the messages. But
mailing lists are still good for some things. I haven't seen a web-based
interface that's as usable as a regular mail reader; they're all clunky,
slow, and awkward.

>> (I've seen other online communities I've been involved in
>> dwindle and  die,
>
> Remember that the amount of mail per day always was seasonal:
> more in weekends/vacations. If one is busy with work/school,
> hobbies are de-prioritized.
Or busy with other hobbies, or a temporary lack of creativity.