Email Lists

When it comes to lists I have to admit I haven't been an avid user in a long long time. Many moons ago when we decided to join up to this weird thing everyone called the "world wide web" I signed up to as many lists, newsgroups and chat sites as possible, eager to get out there and see what it was everyone was raving about. Now I find a lack of time stops me from being involved with allot of unnecessary Internet time waster sites but with studying Net11 I came to find myself looking once again at certain lists.


I ventured to yahoo, got myself an account and took a look. If only I had decided to do this before now I could have saved myself allot of time and aggravation. I came across a list that once signed up will send you daily notifications of proxy sites. I now feel I can keep up with the kids at school that are banned from using these sites but are forever finding new ones to use.

So all i can say is look out kiddies I'm back on track and right there watching lol.

In Net11 we are asked to record our thoughts on two questions:

1) What are the pros and cons of email lists versus discussion boards?
2) Are there certain kinds of communication or purposes more suited to one than the other?

For me the pros and cons between email lists and discussion boards is this. I feel that email list are there to find out something about a certain topic you are interested in. For example you sign up to certain list which take your fancy therefor you receive only information that you want to know or need to know. Discussion boards differ in the way that many topics may appear on the one board. Most discussion boards have threads that are ongoing or you have the ability to start a new thread if you need assistance with a certain question.

So getting back to the question "What are the pros and cons of email lists versus discussion boards?" I see the pros as being email lists will give you direct answers/information to a specific field of interest whereas a discussion board can contain many different topics and the con is that you have less ability to ask an opinion for a topic which is does not have anything to do with that list unlike discussion boards where you have the ability to ask anything about any topic and you will more than likely receive an answer from someone who is active with that board.


We are then asked "Are there certain kinds of communication or purposes more suited to one than the other?". This for me was where I stumbled. I really don't find that there is a huge difference between the two except that a discussion board is as it says. It is a discussion therefor allowing for many opinions to be written and spoken about. Allot of people tend to go onto chat sites to discuss further something that may have been written on a board. By using chats Internet users tend to feel they are having a face-to-face chat without actually being in the same room as the other people they are online to.

Overall I think it is a personal choice for the individual to decide which one they prefer. Discussion boards tend to take up allot of time whereas for me I can sign up for a email list topic that I need information from and do not feel obligated to respond if I don't want to or don't have the time for.