"Eternals" mailing list

[LadyChoc]

One of the things I would have done had I been voted in as Ents Rep was organise an "eternals" mailing list so that people staying in Bristol over the vacations can continue to receive emails, whilst those who aren't around won't get their inboxes clogged.

Can the committee please look into the feasibility of doing something along these lines?

IMO, it's better if everyone can have posting access, but that's because I tend to think moderation / waiting for someone to send something out is kinda counterproductive.

[SubbyMinx]

I see a problem...

The list of people staying in Bristol over the holidays (barring those who live here... you and me ) varies from holiday to holiday, and even within the time period of the holiday. For example, take easter. Some people will go home for the whole month, some will go home for the first too weeks, some will go home for the latter two weeks. Any socials organised in the first two weeks would need to be advertised to a different group of people than the ones in the latter two weeks.

My suggestion: Use the forum and website, and let everyone know (via email at the end of each term) that any holiday socials will be arranged through the forum/website blog. Anyone really interested can sign up to an RSS feed of our website (assuming one exists... WildFire?) and get emails about socials.

[MorgyN]

Eternals? Makes me feel like I should be covered in glitter or something =(

[Scooby]

I'll be in it if someone will cover some men in glitter. And Morgan, theyre IMMORTALS, but good try. And yes, i may be in bristol any given day, im in birmingham for 6, shrewsbury for 4, who knows specifically what dates i will be back for. And i will always consider coming back if its important (ie alton towers)

[LadyChoc]

SubbyMinx said...

I see a problem...

The list of people staying in Bristol over the holidays (barring those who live here... you and me ) varies from holiday to holiday, and even within the time period of the holiday. For example, take easter. Some people will go home for the whole month, some will go home for the first too weeks, some will go home for the latter two weeks. Any socials organised in the first two weeks would need to be advertised to a different group of people than the ones in the latter two weeks.

My suggestion: Use the forum and website, and let everyone know (via email at the end of each term) that any holiday socials will be arranged through the forum/website blog. Anyone really interested can sign up to an RSS feed of our website (assuming one exists... WildFire?) and get emails about socials.

You have a point, however it depends on how the mailing list works as to whether what you're saying has any validity.

The one we had in Oxford was essentially an automated register and deregister, by sending an email to the relevant inbox. I.e., you could deregister for the two weeks you weren't around and then re-register when you got back.

In addition, everyone could post to the list, so anyone who was having an event could publicise it and make it known.

I've almost always found that whereas some people will read a message board once a week or even once every couple of days, nearly everyone reads their email *every* day, and email is therefore by far the better way to get your message across.

Theoretically an open-membershipped, non-moderated Yahoo group (bleh to Yahoo, but if it works...) would do the trick if the university mailing lists can't do what's required.

[AdmiralGT]

Personally I don't like the idea of having several different e-mail lists. You may very well be enticed back by one of the events that's happening, or as Vikki says, only be around for part of the time. If you're going to be around for the 2nd half, when do you sign up to get e-mails about events? 1 day before you're back, 1 week before you're back? You may very well miss an e-mail because you weren't signed up far enough in advance to get an e-mail about it.

For larger events as well, people may travel from their home to the location. Last year for Thorpe Park, not everyone travelled from Bristol, some travelled from London or other places. Do you stay signed up to the Eternals list or not?

Also, by sending e-mails to everyone, you show them that stuff is going on. People might see events happening over Easter and think about hanging around during the summer for a bit longer.

Personally I'd rather get all e-mails from COGS that I might not always care about than miss some e-mails that I may actually want.

[MorgyN]

There's free majordomos too, easy to set up worst comes to the worst and doesn't require a yahoo acct.

Also: http://thesaurus.com/browse/immortal

[2kah]

Possibly holiday events could go out in the normal emails, though that may make them too long.

Another possibility is to send them to everyone, but have something in the subject that states the email concerns holiday socials. That way, if you're not interested or know you aren't going to be around, you can just ignore those emails.

[LadyChoc]

I think I should clarify how we used lists like this at Oxford, as there seems to be some misunderstanding and confusion owing to some of the points that have been raised.

Oxford RPGSoc used a variety of lists so that those who wanted to receive information on certain topics could do so, without having their inboxes clogged up with emails that they didn't want.

The principal lists were the term-time society list, and the non-term-time eternals list. Everyone who joined the society was added onto the society list by default by the Secretary. Anyone who *wanted* to, could *elect* to subscribe to the eternals list at any point that they chose. They could also unsubscribe themselves at any point, should they want to.

About two weeks before term was due to end, an email would go out to everyone on the society list to tell them:
1. Term ends in two weeks
2. Please switch over to using the eternals list from "date".
There would then be a follow-up reminder a week before term was due to end, and a further reminder on the final day of term.

About two weeks before term was due to start, an email would go out to everyone on the eternals list reversing the process.

It was always absolutely the choice of all the individuals concerned when and whether they subscribed to the eternals list. If they wanted to see the emails, they could. But those who *didn't* want to see *any* emails during vacation time didn't have to.

Everyone on the list had posting access, so anyone could organise any kind of event and give it publicity without having to wait for a committee member to do it for them. This meant that anything could be organised at mega short notice if needed - e.g., "anyone fancy going to the pub tonight" could be emailed round at 9am and you may have a bevy of willing types by lunchtime.

The number of emails that actually went through was fairly small owing to not-so-many people being based in Oxford over the vacations, and therefore it was completely manageable volume-wise. Generally speaking people who thought they might be interested in popping back for an event, or who thought they might spend a week here or there in the city, would subscribe to the eternals list for the entirety of the vac because, at the end of the day, it's not a high traffic type of list.

This worked incredibly well. OURPGSoc was operating this kind of structure something like 5-6 years before I joined, and, in fact, 8 years after I graduated they're still doing it, which ought to give some kind of indication how well it does work.

[FishFace]

I imagine that any COGS solution should not mimic OURPG exactly since we use IRC so heavily. The short-notice "anyone fancy a pint?" type events are, for example, much better organised with the immediacy of IRC.