And the Traffic Kept Rolling in From Every Side...

[jducoeur]

It is disconcerting, slightly distressing but rather amusing to realize that the Manche email list -- the mailing list for a single East Kingdom Order that I happen to be a member of -- is currently running traffic over twice as high as the entire Rialto was when I felt compelled to write Charlie and the SCA.

I remember vividly the way that people used to ask, "How do you have time to read all that?", and it never seemed to be a problem. However, it does seem that infoglut rises to fill one's capacity, no matter how great...

Comments

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Aaah. Just discovered RSS aggregators. I may never leave my machine again...people generate content faster than I can read it...

"Well now let me tell you 'bout a man named Charlie,
on that aggregate, fateful day;
he turned on his computer, started reading RSS feeds
and he never could turn away..."

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

It's a bit of a spike, and as usual for this sort of thing, was starting to decrease by the time someone complained about other people having more fun than they were on the list.

But surely it's not more traffic than, say, the East list?

The Rialto itself is a shadow of its former self, and has an average of 5 posts/day (my guess). Most of which are more opinions than exchange of ideas or data.

[jducoeur]

But surely it's not more traffic than, say, the East list?

Probably not. But that's the whole point -- this is a minor list, not one covering a huge area or fraction of the population. And yet, it has twice the volume of what we once collectively considered a scarily high level of traffic.

(Charlie and the SCA was written when the Rialto was averaging around 25 or so messages a day, and spiking to 50 or so. Today, that looks completely insignificant, but only 15 years ago that was a *lot* of email...)

[antoniseb.livejournal.com]

You'd never see this kind of volume on the Tygers Combattant list [which I also stopped reading a few years back]. I think it's a sign that we should close the order till a few of the older ones die off or shut up.

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

I infer you are in favor of such discourse? It's a relief to see that, if so.

THe list had a bunch of very interesting/hot topics come up in a short time. They all started from things relevant to Maunch-hood. Then people started complaining about bandwidth, and about other people babbling on, and about the topics not being relevant, and how if we had bright ideas we should not air them on the list but write to the Crown, as if branstorming in a group of like minds was somehow a really bad idea.

I don't get grumpy very easily, but the complainers on the list are really getting my goat.

[antoniseb.livejournal.com]

I'm neither in favor or opposed. I was proposing a ridiculous solution to real [though minor] problem for which I had no answer. I do agree that discussion is good. I find that there is a limit to the number of simultaneous comments that can still be useful. I haven't envisioned some way to reduce the traffic, yet keep the good aspects.

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Ah, I understand now. Thank you for clarifying.

[siderea]

Oh. My. God.

Many moons ago, the server hiccupped and my subscription got lost. Since the list goes through periods of quiescence, I didn't notice for quite a while ("Hey, a polling went out and I haven't seen any posts about it...."). When I figured out my sub had gotten lost, I decided to take it as a sign. I had enough email. I had more personally important things to read. The first step is admitting you have a problem. Etc.

So I never re-upped. I miss some of the philosophical debate, but I confess it was a relief not to get broadsided by interesting conversations which seemed to inevitably crop up when all my other lists were having interesting conversations. Lead me not into temptation, I can find it myself.

The idea that the maunche list volume is higher than the Rialto in its hey-day.... *boggle*

I guess I'm relieved I'm not subscribed. :)

Um, so, what interesting topics came up (in broad terms)?

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Should Laurels enter A&S competitions?
Why does no one ask if Knights should not enter tourneys?
Is entering a competition with a prize something you do only if you're greedy enough to want the prize?
If a person gets an award, should that person not get another (even if unrelated) for a long time?
If courts are interminable, what can be done about that?
Why do similar events get scheduled on the same weekend?
Why don't as many people enter cooking competitions as enter garb ones?

...that's all I can recall at the moment.

[siderea]

Is entering a competition with a prize something you do only if you're greedy enough to want the prize?

Huhwhuh...? Is this some sort of abstracted question that supposed to represent something else? I can't think of any occasion in 14 years of SCA activity where I knew the prize of an A&S competition before it was given. Or is that immaterial? Am I not getting this?

If courts are interminable, what can be done about that?

Democracy? :}

Why don't as many people enter cooking competitions as enter garb ones?

Hmm. That one may have been interesting to read. As her roommate, I got to hear Caterina rant about cooks and competitions, from time to time.

Competition/prize thing

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

I'm rather mystified by it as well. I think it was part of the "Laurels would win a competition hands down (no mention of in a different discipline) so they must only be entering because they're greedy for prizes."

Fortunately, a fairly short-lived discussion fork.

Re: Competition/prize thing

[siderea]

Oh. Maybe it's for the best I wasn't there for that....

[jducoeur]

The idea that the maunche list volume is higher than the Rialto in its hey-day...

Well, this really about a comparison with the Rialto in its heyday -- rather, it's comparing with the first time we looked around and said, "My, it's getting rather noisy in here, isn't it?". (Which was around when you joined the SCA.)

Things then proceeded to get a lot louder from there. So mostly, I'm marveling at what babes in the woods we were then, with the most naive concepts of infoglut.

Um, so, what interesting topics came up (in broad terms)?

Actually, I'm not even entirely sure -- when the traffic topped out at about 100 messages a day, I stopped having time to pay much attention. And I confess, I didn't find very much of it interesting...

[siderea]

Oh, alright then. Yes, things got much worse subsequently.

[bess.livejournal.com]

Umm... There's a Manche list? How would I go about getting on it? (though I'm not sure I can handle any more email :-)

yes, there is a Maunche list...

[jdulac.livejournal.com]

All the kingdom polling orders have a mailing list that is supposed to be used for discussing worthy candidates and order type business. Normally they are very quiescent except when a new polling comes out, when there is a big spike. These lists are all administered by Ateno, "ateno" at panix.com. To join one, you have to have a known member of the order vouch for your identity.

There is a separate email list for the actual pollings themselves, which is administered by Caitlin Davies.

Re: yes, there is a Maunche list...

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

It's not clear if the Maunche list is allegedly restricted to order business or not. I can't find my "welcome to" email, which I usually save. In practice, the Maunch list and the Laurel one have allowed digression from discussion -- all the topics I listed were honest outgrowths of candidate discussion.

Bess, if you have trouble getting connected, feel free to email me and I'll dig deeper.

Justin, everything I read in your journal has a timestamp several hours ahead of "now." Side effect of your style sheet?

Re: yes, there is a Maunche list...

[siderea]

From the welcome email: "This Mailing list is for the discussion of candidate's either on the polling list or not, ceremony's, projects and anything else along this
topic."

Sic. (Wince!)

My datestamps in comments are 4.5 (!) ahead. I can't figure that out, either.

Re: yes, there is a Maunche list...

[jducoeur]

Justin, everything I read in your journal has a timestamp several hours ahead of "now." Side effect of your style sheet?

Weird. Yes, it does look like the times are all being interpreted using UTC instead of EST.

*Sigh*. I really like the look of The Boxer style. But it seems to be exceptionally buggy. I'll probably get exasperated and drop it, I suppose...

Re: yes, there is a Maunche list...

[jducoeur]

To join one, you have to have a known member of the order vouch for your identity.

Not actually correct. That can be convenient, but in practice, if Ateno isn't confident that you're entitled to be on the list, he writes to msmemory and asks. So you can just write to him...