Module 2 - Email Lists

Email Lists - I am only very knew to this whole world of discussion boards, RSS feeds, blogs forums, email lists etc so this task opened my eyes up a little bit more. Firstly i checked out Topica which introduces the world to thousands of discussion boards & newsletters that you can subscribe to. Health & Fitness & Fashion would be the place i'd first look for discussion boards. So i clicked on health & fitness and in i went. So much information to consume & such awesome ideas, suggestions, advice & opinions you can gather from these sites, what an intricate piece of work! I could spend days on this site alone and that's only 1 of many sites that will allow you to share your concepts, thoughts, experiementation & ideas out to the world, what more could you ask for. One of my favourites is EHOW. You can ask it anything you want in discussion boards and Walaaaa!! the answer is right before your eyes! The other day i found out that if you put dry flour straight onto a oil stain, i should remove it from your garment - i saved a dress :)


1. What are the pros and cons of email lists versus discussion boards?


Discussion boards wins hands down for me!


But the lets outline the good and the bad with both methods


Email Lists - The Good
- Offers the opportunity to interact information & opinions
- Messages are sent to everyone via email on that email list & sent directly to their account for convienience
- The message is delivered to the recipients in seconds without them having to go elsewhere to follow up on the discussion
- Newsletter & subscribe updates are a good way to receive informative info about things a person enjoys, i am signed up to many email lists including Sportsgirl, kookai, whats on in sydney etc, i like that they come to me :)
- The method is good for people who don't have lots of time on their hands to search around for discussion boards, they find a few and sign up. Easy as 1,2,3





Email Lists - The Bad
- These lists are a formalised flow of information.
- If the whole thread is not attached to each email from that list how can you keep up to date with all the information? To much unorganisation & can get lost
- Email lists can also bring waste of time posts directly to you
- This method can also bring hundreds of posts on that topic straight to you & flood your inbox (Now do you really want that?)




Discussion Boards - The Good
- Offers the opportunity to interact information & opinions (what would we do without Webct? I would be lost)
- You have the option to discard the waste of time posts & focus on the information you want
- It is much easier to continue a conversation & follow one on a discussion board
- There is millions online to find exactly what you're looking for and they are easy to find. You can start here at Yahoo


Discussion Boards - The Bad
- A discussion board may not offer answers in critical situations, they could take up to a few days if it is not that active
- You have to log in to the discussion board instead of it coming straight you


Based on the good and the bad, email lists have more cons than discussions boards.







Therefore Discussion Boards are the




2. Are there certain kinds of communication or purposes more suited to one than the other?

Subscriptions & updates are more suited to email lists than discussion boards as they send out information specifically requested by you. Discussion boards are more suitable for people looking for an answer or opinion about something on different topics. They are more "open" then email lists. The communication on a discussion board is more informal than an email list. The communication is threaded for everyone to see and each post is attached to the main thread on a discussion board. The kind of communication on a email list is one way, it is sent out and then everyone replies to that post and it gets sent out at once, the flow of information is directed differetly to the other.