[Air-L] Priorities and Probabilities re: the big switch debate

[RBerkman at aol.com]

Bottom line seems to be that if we agree with the premise that: 
 
seeing the back and forth discussions on this list is its primary  value 
and the reason why people subscribe (and perhaps even for some their  entire 
interest in AIR!), then removing this value would be even a higher  
"disaster" than a lawsuit, etc. (and much more probable), as it will defeat  nearly 
the entire purpose of this valued entity!
 
Bob Berkman
Associate Professor
Media Studies & Film
The New School
New York NY

 
 
In a message dated 5/12/2009 4:42:31 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
U.Matzat at tue.nl writes:

On 11  May 2009 at 20:40, air-l-request at listserv.aoir.o wrote:
> Message:  3
> Date: Mon, 11 May 2009 09:25:34 -0400
> From: Alex Halavais  <alex at halavais.net>
> Subject: Re: [Air-L] Change of default reply  setting on air-l
> To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
>  Message-ID:
>          <e0fe0c740905110625n71f690dfle9e0775ed700d1cc at mail.gmail.com>
>  Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
> 
> May I ask a  naive question? Several have suggested that changing the
> list to  default to reply-to-author will have significant detrimental
> effects  on the community, ranging from harm to ruin. Some have indicated
> that  this is a well-researched fact.

I have done a study on the determinants  of sending answers/providing
information in academic emailing lists. While  I was interested in other
things, one of the many control variables  indicates whether the default
reply is to the group. This control variable  has a significant positive
effect on the likelihood of sending an answer to  the whole list. The study
compares the posting behavior of researchers in  47 academic emailing lists
over a period of 2 months. For more details see  Table 2 in the following:

Matzat, U. (2009). "The Embeddedness of  Academic Online Groups in Offline
Social Networks: Reputation Gain as a  Stimulus for Online Discussion
Participation?" in: International Sociology,  24, 1: 63-92.

Nevertheless I prefer the new setting (but not the sudden  way it was 
implemented). 
Although I am on digest, it is hard for me to  follow the discussions and 
only some 
of the postings are valuable to me.  

Best  regards,
Uwe

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