Running an Email Forum (Listserv)

Questions about running a successful listserv

[Bluestreak]

Hi all,

Just want to see if there are people here who run a large listserv (not announce only, listservs that are interactive *e.g. forum*)

The listserv I have is the major theme of my site, but before I start advertising, I want to find out what my limit is. I know having too many members on the list could result in chaotic email exchanges and far too many messages in your inbox, so Im trying to find what the acceptable limit is. I read that there was one listserv with 20,000 members, and it was set up as a forum. Thats incredible, I can only imagine how much mail that list generated!

Can it be done? What could I expect in terms of bandwidth (how much on average a month) from a unusually large listservs. Before I found out about the 20k listserv, I thought the most I could have that could still be manageable was a 1000.

If anyone runs a listserv, even if it is announce only, Id appreciate your insight. I need to be careful that Im not in over my head here :D

[Dante_Maure]

The very best high volume discussion lists I know of are all moderated and compiled into a digest format by hand. (as opposed to an automated digest format)

It takes a dedicated moderator, but the pay off is a very high signal to noise ratio and clearly threaded discussions which keep subscribers loyal and active.

You might want to check out Adventive's formatting as they host some of the longest running, and highest volume business lists on the web.

[Bluestreak]

Thanks for the info, I'll check them out. it does make sense with a list so large to convert it to digest mode and moderate it. The signal to noise raio would deteriorate dramatically if such steps werent taken. Oh well. Another possibilty Ive thought of is using a Mail to News gateway (using an NNTP server)

Happy New Year!

[rjohara]

I ran a very active academic listserv for several years - about 600 members with several messages/day. When they get that large they really do need to be moderated in some way, and that is a huge amount of work, but the resulting quality can be very high. I recommend posting a monthly how-to message on the first of each month as a reminder of what the group is, how to join, cancel, post, where to go with problems, etc. Be sure to participate regularly yourself and always identify yourself as the list owner in your .sig. (You may think your list is important and *everyone* knows that you're the owner, but that's not realistic, especially since many people subscribe to lots of lists and don't always follow them closely.)

Some listserv-type software now allows for automatic footers to be attached to messages; if you make this a one-line pointer to a webpage with list administration info and other related background it can also make things much easier.

The secret of success is really just active involvement and good communications skills.

[Bluestreak]

Thanks rjohara, thats actually exactly what I do, even with the footer. The thing is I'm greedy, I want to make money off of this so i can quit my dead end job dangit! :D

Unfortunately, there's little to be made evidently unless I have an extremely large membership (10,000 or so), and its more prudent at that point to run a newsletter rather than an ummoderated email discussion list.