[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Clay Shirky on social software

[Shaun Hately]

On 6 Jul 2003 at 16:08, David wrote:

> You can argue that some of the post-reading strategies recently 
> discussed can achieve much of that, in effect by selecting posts by 
> author rather than topic, but I'm not sure it works for everyone.

I also wonder what they do to the rest of the group. When people seek out 
the posters they enjoy reading using the search engines, over time, it 
seems to me you can end up with very cliquish behaviour on the list. 
Where certain cores of people are discussing things among themselves, 
and a large group of people circle around listening, but are never heard 
because they're not on peoples lists of worthwhile posters - and never will 
be because those people are not reading what they have to say.

I can certainly understand why people need to use certain strategies to 
read such a high volume list, but I think there is a potential for real 
problems there.

And I wonder how many people even saw my post on the astronomical 
errors in Order of the Phoenix, which took me three solid hours to write (-8 

Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately |webpage: http://www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       |email: drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in 
common. They
don't alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit
the views. Which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the
facts that need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
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