Hacker Read

JohnTHaller · 2014-04-08 03:18:30+00:00

I'd wager the vast majority of folks on the internet don't even know what a participatory mailing list is. And I say that as someone who has been a part of multiple lists for nearly 20 years.

wvenable | karma 19014 | avg karma 3.37 · | 2013-09-06 19:10:14

The problem is the mailing list is open to anyone and the majority of people on the list should be providing input.

clircle | karma 2323 | avg karma 3.03 · | 2022-10-27 08:01:20

What's better than a mailing list?

simonbarker87 | karma 5627 | avg karma 4.41 · | 2016-10-05 14:26:37

Fair enough, that is spam in that case. Your initial comment didn't specify that you have never signed up for a mailing list (except for open source software, which is a mailing list) which I think puts you in the minority of people.

99percenter | karma 4 | avg karma 4.0 · | 2014-03-20 14:30:53

Could you explain a little for the 99% who won't join those mailing lists?

pseudalopex | karma 4924 | avg karma 1.42 · | 2021-01-12 22:19:23+00:00

Mailing lists exist.

rtpg | karma 18369 | avg karma 3.39 · | 2014-06-05 04:21:50

I think you underestimate the power of mailing lists among the general public

CamperBob2 | karma 11341 | avg karma 1.16 · | 2014-10-06 18:00:02+00:00

Maybe that's how mailing lists worked "a quarter century" ago, but it's most certainly not how mainstream mailing lists work now.

csallen | karma 9738 | avg karma 6.47 · | 2017-02-23 17:14:30

People underestimate how significant a huge mailing list can be!

extrememota | karma | avg karma · | 2021-01-13 09:20:50+00:00

What's wrong with mailing lists?

mcguire | karma 18217 | avg karma 1.81 · | 2017-04-16 15:09:07+00:00

"I didn’t build up a mailing list. At one point I had almost 20,000 people subscribing via Feedburner. Imagine if I had converted half of them to email subscribers. That would have been a huge platform to work from. And email is the single most effective way of communicating with people online."

I don't get it. I'm on like 27 mailing lists from places where I bought something or had to set up an account for some reason, and the first thing I do is set up a filter that shovels their traffic into thr trash.

Why does everyone say, set up a mailing list?

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fit2rule | karma 3490 | avg karma 0.79 · | 2019-05-13 11:16:29

I've been running/involved in mailing-lists, the non-SPAM kind, for decades.

Whatever the tech you use, its the people.

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atriix | karma 780 | avg karma 12.19 · | 2017-04-11 20:30:01

It would appear as not many people either know or make a difference of a mailing list and a newsletter, since most things linked here are newsletters.

fishnchips | karma 1826 | avg karma 3.02 · | 2014-12-09 00:04:56+00:00

That's what mailing lists are for and it's hardly an innovation.

rwmj | karma 37735 | avg karma 4.63 · | 2019-11-09 07:40:24+00:00

Then they have to subscribe to the mailing list, which is another set of extra steps. Some people only know the web exists and don't even know mailing lists are a thing.

tragic | karma 998 | avg karma 2.68 · | 2014-04-08 10:48:04+00:00

I'm on ten or twelve different mailing lists. Only two have anything whatsoever to do with tech. The rest are - as per dfc above - politics-related.

So I don't view lists as somehow a techie habit - quite the opposite, in fact. They work for politics because the technical 'barrier to entry' is very low. You don't need to know anything more about computers than how to send and receive email in a client of your choice. Given that in most political groups you're dealing with students, pensioners and everyone in between, this is a distinct evolutionary advantage.

I have no idea how the total volume of list-mail breaks down between tech stuff and muggle concerns. But in any situation where you have to communicate between people of different generations with wildly different technical expertise, lists are an ideal lowest-common-denominator.

Until, that is, Yahoo or whoever cut their users off, and muggins here has to explain to uncomprehending people why their messages aren't appearing.

Guess it's going to be a long week for me. sigh

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d0mine | karma 4431 | avg karma 2.02 · | 2008-12-02 23:27:18+00:00

Mailing lists are there for a reason.

fake-name | karma 1886 | avg karma 3.88 · | 2018-04-18 23:53:19+00:00

Downside: Holy shit fuck mailing lists. They're terrible.

Major downside: You miss a huge percentage of possible contributors.

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andrewmcwatters | karma 5427 | avg karma 2.05 · | 2018-04-19 15:04:53+00:00

I love mailing lists. They're a natural filter and get rid of a lot of the demographic you don't want in the first place.

astrodust | karma 13331 | avg karma 2.07 · | 2015-02-02 16:49:33+00:00

This is actually a great idea. It's the modern equivalent of a paid mailing list.