Is it just me or does anyone else find mailing lists really annoying and somewhat aggressive?
Yes, I want to keep up to date with all of the latest news and opinions from the public library sector but I’d much rather have the opportunity to delve in and out of conversations at my own convenience. Although mailing lists offer to send posts in a variety of formats, e.g. digested, I just feel that online forums are a significantly superior communication tool.
Reasons why online forums are better
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We can access forums at our own convenience, dipping in and out of conversations.
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We can filter out the ‘noise’; like some of the ongoing ’round in circles’ discussions that have recently plagued one of the mailing lists I subscribe to.
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They’re a much more attractive communication platform for new professionals – there’s a lot of pressure to think that one of your musings will be delivered to the mailboxes of 2,000 or so subscribers; regardless of whether they are actually interested in your specific research area…much less stressful to think that the posts you upload to a bulletin board will be read by users casually browsing ‘topic’ and ‘sub-topic’ lists!
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It’s so much easier to follow specific discussions as the communication flow is not interrupted by new messages appearing in your mailbox requesting your presence at forthcoming conferences…
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Forums are simply much more user friendly, visually appealing and efficient; not to mention a better ‘fit’ for our Web 2.0 social networking life!
But that’s just my opinion…
The Library of Digress 