RE: [-empyre-] Size matters?

["Charlotte Frost" <charlotte@digitalcritic.org>]

I have witnessed this too, and some of the lists I read most tend to be the
smaller ones. I also find that the archives of some of the bigger lists are
very difficult to search. I find nettime a pain to find stuff on and I know
others do too, which is really annoying because I wasn't online during some
of the debates most relevant to my research, and I can't sit around waiting
for them to published in books now can I?!

When there is no archive, they become more like Left Bank Coffee Houses etc
and this is a very interesting arena in itself, perhaps where just having
the discussions and conversations is what counts...and laying testament
occurs in the art works or outcomes of such conversations....

Do you find these lists more fruitful for the production of work? Do they
foster workable collaborations? 

Charlotte

-----Original Message-----
From: empyre-bounces@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
[mailto:empyre-bounces@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au] On Behalf Of Peter Luining
Sent: 11 August 2004 11:38
To: soft_skinned_space
Subject: Re: [-empyre-] Size matters?

Alan Sondheim wrote:


> Almost every list I'm on concerns
> itself one way or another with archiving, and how the archive functions. 


My experience is different. I'm on 37 real mailinglists (just counted 
them ;) 21 of them have no archive and nearly all of those 21 have less 
than 20 members but what's maybe of more interest here is that they are 
closed lists and that you know most of the people on this lists in person.
I think especially the last years there's a tendency to set up small 
closed lists (amongst others by artists) because the "larger" open lists 
with archives are: 1. getting more and more in the grip of what you 
could call political interests (in the sense that you watch out before 
you email something, because who knows who's reading your mail and it's 
all rereadable in the archives) 2. unpredictable, in the sense that you 
don't know how people respond, if they respond and all  3. with more 
people connected to the net you get local lists with just friends on it 
where you can talk about easy about banal and local things, etc.



Peter
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