Re: [-empyre-] Size matters?

[Peter Luining <email@ctrlaltdel.org>]

Charlotte Frost wrote:
> 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? 


My personal experience is that lists where you know a lot of people in 
person make you easier respond to things. What I do however think is 
that on (small) closed lists you easier drop personal ideas and 
opinions, but also more banal things like gossip or questions that seem 
to be to stupid to ask on bigger lists with archives, they are just more 
intimate. To get to your question if they are more fruitful for the 
production of work, I think in some sense they are, because you can ask 
questions (as for example programming related) you probably wouldn't ask 
on the bigger list. If you ask me if they foster workable collaborations 
my experience is that they have more chance in contributing to this than 
the larger lists.


Peter