what ails the sarai reader list? (august 2005)
DESCRIPTION
An examination of how form affects community formation, contrasting LiveJournal with the Mailman-powered Sarai Reader List (August 2005).TRANSCRIPT
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What Ails the Sarai Reader
List?Learning from
LiveJournal’s successKiran Jonnalagadda <[email protected]>August 24, 2005, at Sarai-CSDS, Delhi
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Formerly:
Studying How Form Affects Online Community
(With insights from coffee shop culture)
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Contrast in Participation
My participation in the Reader List and LiveJournal,* Dec 2004 to August 2005:
Total posters on Reader List: ≅ 520
Total posts to Reader List: 1546
Commentators on LiveJournal: ≅ 333
Comments received on Reader List: 0
Comments received on LJ: 3076 (0-77)
3LiveJournal’s nature makes it hard to do a one-on-one comparison; this is an approximation
*
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Typical Complaints
Too many posts; hard to keep up
Too many posters; hard to get familiar
Hard to follow individual threads
Flood of posts every 25th
So how does LiveJournal sustain so much traffic so effortlessly? 1546 overall versus 3076 comments addressed to a single person!
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The Sarai Reader List is crumbling. The list needs to figure
out how to effectively channelise traffic so readers are not burdened.
Imagine reading a newspaper that prints all the news in the world in a single narrow, long sheet.
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Linearity and Unread Flags are for Memos, not Communities
Problem 1:
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Threaded DiscussionsStandard feature of mailing lists
But LiveJournal makes participating easier
LiveJournal’s user experience frequently emphasises restricted views of a greater community.
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The Friends Network:Seamless Subgroups
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Identity andSelf-Representation
Problem 2:
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Identity on LiveJournalGlobally unique id
User profile with contact and participation details
Reference via <lj user=“”>
User pictures linked to keywords (emotions)
Choice of picture when participating anywhere
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Intimacy and Possession
The mailing list is not personal space
LiveJournal provides personal journals
Are you addressing one while a thousand peer at you?
Or are you addressing one while a thousand go about their own lives?
LiveJournal achieves the latter
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Problem 3:
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ArchivalHard to find an old post; No search
Threading unreliable and broken across months
LiveJournal: the archive is the primary interface
LiveJournal also lacking when searching for posts
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Problem 4:
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Rescuing the Reader List
Initial plan: make LiveJournal installation for the Reader List.
Abandoned for technical difficulties
Blue sky plan: make new system
But who’ll create and maintain it?
Current plan: make better interaction system on top of existing MailMan list
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