[Foundation-l] We have the problem

[Michael Snow]

Pedro Sanchez wrote:
> Alternatively, we've learn not to go into long long nitpicking threads.
> So this is better, less volume, but signal/noise increases.
>
> I'm even reading some threads now instead of automatically canning them.
>
> Beware of the emailpostcountitis!
>   
I agree with this, especially as it relates to recent activity. My sense 
is that recent discussions on this list have been very useful (including 
this thread), quite a bit more than they were roughly a year ago. 
Anyway, using my rough impressions as a guide, I find basically no 
correlation between the volume of messages and the quality.

This is not to say that activity levels aren't something to be concerned 
about, although I might want to start with a focus on something other 
than this mailing list. But sometimes lots of visible activity reflects 
(or promotes) lots of productive work; sometimes lots of activity simply 
means we're bogged down in things that are keeping us from productivity; 
sometimes visible activity is lower because we're busy being productive 
in other ways; and sometimes activity is lower because we're not as 
involved in the projects. Using a two-directional measurement to 
describe phenomena with at least four possible compass points will only 
be a very small start, from an analytical perspective.

--Michael Snow