[Air-l] Community "Critical Mass"?

[Mary-Helen Ward]

I realise that email lists seem a bit 'old hat', but I think that  
there is a lot to be learned from them about how communities form,  
fail or are sustained online.

I've been a member of one online community (email list only) for ten  
years. It's shrunk a bit over the years - some members have died and  
some have lost interest - but it's still going and we still have a  
few postings most weeks. We are down to 29 members, but we all agree  
on the list's importance to our lives. I don't see any way that maths  
could help predict this kind of success. Many of the members aren't  
able to get out much; some are enormously busy working lives. We are  
a mad mix of people who just happen to get on and value each other's  
presence. Just like any friendship group really, except that we are  
on three continents.

Another quite different international community that I have been in  
for about 8 years is extremely successful in another way. It has a  
much more mixed, lively and mobile membership; presently just under  
200 with a core of about 50 regular posters. It also has a website  
with photographs of members and their projects (it is craft-based),  
lists of members' webpages and blogs etc, which is maintained  
regularly. Again, the list is very important to the people who  
subscribe to it.

Neither of these groups is based at Yahoo, but a scan of the email  
groups that are based at there will show how many never get off the  
ground, but there are a few that do and remain hugely successfully,  
with many regular postings, pretty much indefinitely. I wonder if  
they have anything in common?

M-H

On 22/12/2006, at 11:22 AM, Hugemusic wrote:

> Sorry, guys but I just don't agree.
>
> Sure, there's no hard and fast number that will indicate a critical  
> mass for
> all, but there has to be some statistical indicator of probable
> sustainability - we're just not exploring the relationships deeply  
> enough
> yet.