Philonoist.net

Let’s talk about e-mail lists. They’re ineffective for every task, except one: mass e-mailing people into oblivion. E-mail lists magnify the worst aspect of communication technology: the ultra-quickness, low cost and total anonymity of e-mail is now raised to the nth degree.

Olin has roughly 232 e-mail lists, based off of a quick count. For a community of, realistically, the order of 400 e-mail addresses (291 students, 30 faculty, and staff positions), doesn’t this seem like a high number? Maybe that’s just me. Most of these do the one thing they can do just fine: send homework reminders, exam locations, etc. to the entire class. Or send the meeting notes to people who need them. But at Olin, the three most popular lists are: Carpediem, HelpMe, and Randomness. And these are the ones that suck the most, that cause 95% of all of our problems. Carpediem was originally intended to advertise events or opportunities, both on-and-off campus, that may appeal to members of the student body. HelpMe was originally intended to help students get over the hurdle of asking for something, such as a ride, a pair of scissors, a lab partner, etc. Randomness was originally intended to be the catch-all for every other list, with the only rule being that students can’t complain about the content.

There are a few problems with the general format: Students frequently send an extra e-mail marked RESOLVED to Helpme when a request is completed. (Naturally, this increases the number of e-mails from n to 2*n). And, as brilliant as we are, students have a tough time finding the “Reply” button, opting instead to just use the “Reply All” button. (They do different things. Honest.) But for what it’s worth, the community has kept these general guidelines in mind for the majority of the time. Students keep carpediem clear of junk.

So, this is all great. Except one tiny, eensy-weensy thing: E-mail lists, by their very design, suck at discussion. And, unless you’re very careful: the Internet in general sucks at discussion. It’s an order of magnitude tougher to come to consensus, make a creative work, even have an argument via e-mail or forum posts. (Imagine this: “In your last e-mail, you called me a hor. Did you mean ‘whore’ or ‘horse’?”) Why? Because there’s a lot more to a group of words when they’re spoken. If I’m speaking to you in person, you’d know immediately if I was joking, sarcastic, serious, angry. You could immediately ask for clarification, instead of waiting for a clarification e-mail, instead of reading between the lines. Phone conversations work nearly as well, because so much is in just the tonality of a voice. No e-mail list, no online group is ever going to replace face-to-face conversation.

Here’s the easiest way to talk about something, which no website is going to replace: Do it in person. Want to have a discussion on a recent newspaper article? By all means, send out the link via e-mail lists. But include a time and place where you’ll be. Bring your own coffee or tea. And there’s a point when it all goes too far: A list for girls. I’ll be honest, as soon as I heard this, I thought “Whoa. That’s pretty discriminitory. The list of possible things girls could talk about in an all-girl environment…. why, they could even be talking about me! This must come to an end!” But after resisting the “Reply” button for 10 seconds, I realized the probable truth, (coupled with reading more about it later); for the most part, its girls asking other girls for feminine products. Maybe it’s even more than that. I don’t know. Sorry, but what the hell? I certainly hope this isn’t the reason the list started. I understand people run out of things they use, and usually at times when they actually need it. But if you need a tampon: Ask your roommate. Or the girl next door. There’s no reason to have documented (and Google searchable) requests for a tampon.

Some things do not translate well to the virtual world. I leave it as an exercise for the reader to find out which ones don’t.