Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Modle 2: Email List

This task required us to look around the web for email lists. I looked around http://lists.topica.com, which was suggested by our tutor, and found a number of email lists which caught my attention. I finally found a song writing email list which appealed to me because I write my own music and lyrics. The link to this email list is: http://lists.topica.com/lists/writingsongs/. These are the details:

List Name "Writing songs" E-mail group (Writing songs)
Purpose: This list is about songwriting discussion. Check out our web site http://writingsongs.com Keep posted about what's new at the site with this newsletter.
Website URL: http://writingsongs.com
List Type: Moderated discussion
Subscription: Does not require owner approval
Archive: Readable by anyone
Created: Sep 21, 1999
Owner: Pro Audio Music
To Join: Subscribe here, or send an email to writingsongs-subscribe@topica.com
To Post: Send mail to 'writingsongs@topica.com'
Stats: 837 subscribers / 5 messages per week
Categories: Entertainment | Music | Composition | Songwriting

I did not join up because I am already a member of many forums and have previously used email lists.

From my experiences there are many differences between email lists and discussion boards. The major difference is privacy. When I was first introduced to email lists I was under the impression that they allowed a higher level of privacy. However after spending some time on them I realised that it was the complete opposite. Anyone is able to view your email address and in most cases you real name. This is what made me switch from email lists to discussion boards. Discussion boards allow you to hide any information that you don't want shown and I see this to be a huge advantage.

Apart from this, I see that discussion boards are more relaxed than email lists. Email lists carry a certain type of formality that makes me uncomfortable. I enjoy people flaming in discussion boards as it makes it more fun sometimes. However at times I could find myself respecting the formality of the email lists.

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