Yesterday, when I was griping about not seeing much in the way of useful things to answer on the mailing lists recently, I got to thinking. Just how active *have* I been on the mailing lists?
This month, I've answered 9 emails (out of all of the mailing lists). This month, I've received 1920 emails on the mailing lists. This morning, I spent a half hour reading my emails, and did not answer even one.
So I've simply resigned from most of the mailing lists (not the betas list though) due to the sheer volume of email + how much time I waste wading through it vs how much I contribute to answering questions. I find them distracting (no matter when I check them) and lately, a fairly obvious drain on my time. It'd be different if I was still answering a large number of questions, but I haven't found very many topics to answer on recently. I think focusing on the forums would be a better use of my time.
So if you don't see my name pop up on the NUG anymore (not that you see it pop up very often lately anyway), you know why. As always, if you have questions specifically for me, then email me directly. And if you have general questions that you think I, or others, might be able to answer, then ask on the forums.
Btw, this isn't meant as a whiny "if you won't listen to me, I'm taking my ball and going home" post. I just felt that people deserved some sort of explanation about my reasoning, and the underlying reasoning is that it's a time management issue. I'd rather spend my time helping people or writing code, and putting a half hour a day (or more) into a resource which I don't contribute to is not good use of my time.
It would be a strange person who suggested you don't pull your weight in communication with the users Aaron. Even without your contributions on the NUG.
I think you guys should start a couple new mailing lists. Here are my ideas for what those lists should be:
1) Armchair_QB
2) IfIRanTheCompany
3) I Am Smarter Than Everyone At RS
4) Things RS Should Have Asked Me About And Done Completely Differently, According To My Specifications
5) Reasons Why [XCode/Delphi/VB/Java/etc] Is Superior To RB (could be split into multiple lists)
6) That's It! I'm Leaving RB! But I'm Going To Hang Around And Post As Often As Possible To Make Sure Everyone Understands My Dissatisfaction!
7) Interface Complaints
8) Horrifying Things I Read On Aaron's Blog
9) Why RB Should Be Open Source
I think that covers it. When new discussions break out, we just refer people to the appropriate list.
I can't say that I'm happy with your decision but I understand it. I've noticed a general drop off in postings by RS staff on the mailing list. For me mailing lists much more efficient time wise than web forums. The big advantage is that I'm get all of the postings sent to me and I can read and reply offline.
My pet peeve with web forums is that you have to go to them to know if there are any new threads. Checking your email is so much easier.
I appreciate the generous offer of direct emails but I'm not sure for what topics that would be appropriate. That's the real advantage of having RS engineers on the lists. You just pop into threads and show us the correct direction.
Maybe at REALworld we can discuss the ideal web forum over a beer.
Hey hey! Someone joins me! I haven't answer mailing list emails in over two years the way I used to. Man, I used to answer everything. Now it's a lot of stuff that just doesn't interest me.
Ah, wise time management decision grasshopper!
LoL @ Brad -- how true it is!
@Chris -- some people prefer the pull mechanisms instead of push. I much prefer to go answer questions when I have the time to answer them. And I like the way the forums allows me to pick and choose which categories to flip thru. So I don't have to be notified of 50 posts that are off-topic. But you're welcome to come bend my ear at REAL World!
@Seth -- now you just need to come answer stuff on the forums! :-D
I also haven't been as active as I used to be. I'm curious if anybody has any month-to-month stats on the NUG volume. Because lately I've been getting this feeling that the volume is falling off. I wonder if some of that is due to the forums?
Will: I don't think it's the forums so much as the general decline in civility. The NUG has become a *much* nastier place in recent months.
How ironic! I also just resigned from the NUG, having concluded that I get little out of it.
Welcome to the club! I dropped out of most of the lists as well - I found keeping up with it all was a huge drain on my time, which is already stretched pretty thin between work and family.
Hey, I'd volunteer for some of those if I had the time. I love people who have nothing better to do with their time than to Skywalker so much they need a "Do not open ever!" taped on top of a gag in their mouth. (Just for the record, this is the "light" version of what I wanted to say. Use your imagination to fill in what I left out.)
Better yet, have no one monitor such a list/forum. Instead, have all messages go to a virtual "circular file",if you get what I mean. ;)
BTW, great 2 see you better. :)
I totally understand where you are coming from on this one Aaron. If find it far less distracting to read over the formus than to pour through the tonnes of email that the NUGs generate.
I have to say of late I've been so busy that I've not had much time to even really contribute to the forums of late. Hopefully that will change as the year progresses.
I don't know. I think civility on the NUG has ebbed and flowed. There have been some pretty exciting, uh, "debates" (for want of a better word). But perhaps this time things are different.
Oh man, I woke up today with only three emails in my inbox. 1 bug, 1 forums response and 1 personal email. Damn was I a happy man.
I must admit that even after this short of a period of time, I know this was a good idea on my part. I am more productive, and I am generally a happier camper.
@Aaron: I can fix that! Do you want some bug reports to look into?
;) Just kidding.
And I was with the impression that it was only me :)
@ Brad - you're completely right!
Fortunately I have a software to "wash" my email (MailWasher) before downloading it to Outlook.
BTW, I solved the problem with the huge amount of mails on the NUG by having them sent to my GMail account. There I've set up filters not to send those mails to my regular POP account my Mac's mail app polls frequently.
I then read those NUG mails using the web browser, where I can see the threads quite well and scan over them to see what interests me.
That way, I do not get disturbed by incoming mail all the time but instead can take my time to "work" on the NUG when I make the time for it.
GMail's web interface is pretty good -- much better than any others I've seen (gmx, web.de, squirrelmail, yahoo)
Hi Aaron,
I fully understand your decission, but on the contrary i see it as a devaluation of the NUG-list. Suppose all RS-workers would make the same decission how you ever get an answer to a serious question from RS? Ok there are plenty goodwilling people on the list who want to help others but they don't have the same degree of authority as RS people.
The answer could be mail directly to me, but in that case your answer only serves only that user and that implies you could have to answer the same question several times and still your answer would be in the dark for all people who eventually could benefit from it.
I would strongly suggest to reconsider and instead let the list-moderator use a stronger way to releave the list from unwanted opinions and useless discussions. As i see now for two weeks in februari, the NUG has generated over 1,700 messages and from that were 124 about the RB/Delphi offer. These are all signed as OT, so why aren't they moved to the OT-list? And so there are more examples that could realy help you and others to maintain a possibility to support a large group of users with 'minimal' (as far as that is possible) effort.
But again i fully understand your action although i regret it.
@Andre -- the problem with lists is that no amount of list-momming reduces the problem. Many people recall me as being the killer of all threads "off-topic" But it just never works. People can ignore you, so they will. On the forums, there's no such problem. I can MOVE the thread somewhere else, or lock it, etc. So there's a system in place on the forums to rectify situations that doesn't rely on the good will of the people doing something wrong.
As for "how you ever get an answer to a serious question from RS?" -- go to the forums. :-P
I can honestly say that this was a very good move on my part. Anything that helps me be more productive is a good deal for everyone (esp me since it cuts down on undue stress).
@Thomas -- I use Thunderbird, which has a really nice threading feature as well. It's not the mail client that bothers me; it's the content and attitude that does. What's frustrating is that people will even point out something is OT, but they still bring it up anyways, and proceed to have 100+ exchanges on it. And you can't do anything about it aside from request them to stop. Which works for that thread (sometimes), but in a week, you'll see the same problem again.