Thursday, February 09, 2006

Does TCNJers follow the history of Usenet?

Comparing the history of TCNJers to a history of Usenet groups such as sci.engr (greatly accelerated):
  1. we start with the original group, small but committed
  2. discussion topics start out specific but gravitate to general, except for ads for meetings that may or may not be of general interest
  3. good discussions bring in more users
  4. occasional announcements from those who drop in just to make them
  5. flame wars break out but are quashed by those who want a nice group, and occasionally by group veterans who are trying to maintain a vision
  6. as the group grows, those interested in specific discussions break out into other groups, keeping the participation in the original group close to constant
  7. but most of the thoughtful people break out into the other groups
  8. and the original group is gradually dominated by a few "personalities" with spam on their mind or axes to grind
  9. the remaining thoughtful people are chased off by flame wars
  10. the original group becomes a polluted sandbox dominated by spam and the pronouncements of the personalities
If it's true that TCNJers follows this history, we are currently proceeding toward stage 6.

My former student Mary Anne, who's responsible for forming TCNJers, I don't think ever dreamed that she'd have a community of more than 150. On a campus of 6000, where many students are far from activist, this is significant. Some of the subscribers are potential students; a few are alumni; some participants claim their parents even occasionally look in. (Heaven forfend!) I would consider this a classic example of word-of-mouth marketing, as Usenet once was.

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posted by Ron @ 7:24 PM

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