[gurps] End of Pyramid newsgroups

[hal at buffnet.net]

>Discussion of things other than GURPS. (This mailing list hasn't exactly
>been super-lively of late even for GURPS discussion...)
>
>Roger

I had to smile at that comment above... 

Usually, when a mailing list is supplanted by a forum, the mailing list
tends to die out.  People like the convience of being able to sort out
topics of interest from topics of no interest.  What is missing however, is
that sense of community where although you may not be interested in the
topic of how many oxen are required to pull a plow, you might know the
answer well enough to contribute it to the ongoing discussion.  When you're
involved in a Forum, you tend to ignore topics that are not viewed directly
in the mailing list's activity.  Instead of getting 200 email posts to the
mailing list, now you only see the 5 you are interested in for something
like GURPS TRAVELLER.  You don't see the comments about economics, nor the
posts about GM problems running a campaign, nor the issues that might arise
from a night's game play as far as internally consistent politics.  Also,
once you settle into your nice comfortable niche, you tend not to look
outside of it - which to my mind, can act to stifle any further potential
growth in other areas.

That is why I mentioned "what can I gain from joining, and what can I
contribute"  Both are flip sides of the same coin.  People need to have a
reason to congregate together.  Lacking a reason, the congregation grows
smaller month by month, week by week, day by day until the congregation has
evaporated entiredly, leaving behind a ghost archive stored away on
someone's hard drive, or perhaps stored on a server hard drive, never to be
accessed - forgotten that it even existed.

When you keep in daily touch on the list, and you suddenly notice that
someone hasn't been posting for the last month, you might be motivated to
send an email to the individual saying "Hey there, haven't seen you post in
a bit.  Are you ok?"  Getting an email like that can sometimes make all the
difference if you're down in the dumps, or perhaps sick, or what have you.
It says "Hey, people notice if I'm not here or not".

That is one primary reason I'm not too enamoured of the Forums.  I'm also
only too aware of what happens when a forum becomes dominated (or a mailing
list for that matter!) by a clique of people whose "politically correct way
of thinking" can be sufficient to drive away other potential contributors
to the forum/mailing list.  I think that's a shame actually, because
sometimes, the clique has it wrong but derives comfort in being surrounded
by other wrong thinking individuals.  Other times, the person who's
viewpoint may be wrong, may spark a piece of creativity that supercedes the
original "wrongness" as it were.

Forums to me, are too much of a "blinkered community" and blind people to
the other good stuf.

To that end Roger?  Would you be so kind as to send me an invite to the
group you mentioned?  It costs me nothing, and perhaps I can add a little
spice to it.  :)

What I probably should do while I've the time on my hands, is write another
Alaconius Lecture.  :)