[WEB4LIB] Lurkers, Listserv and RSS

[cchick.1210043 at bloglines.com]

Since Bloglines offers an email subscription feature, I'm able to do this
now, and I love it.  I create disposable email addresses for each listserv,
set it up in Bloglines, and read my listserv email along with my RSS feeds.
 I'm able to follow many more listservs now than I could before.  Here's a
more complete discussion of the advantages of receiving listservs this way.
 
http://www.lawlibtech.com/archives/000131.html

The only real downside
is that it can be hard for me to spot personal responses to my email postings.


I think all listservs should be available as RSS feeds, so everyone can
enjoy the benefits!

Cindy Chick

--- HUTCHINSONA at si.edu wrote:
I have
begun to wonder whether the listserv as a medium will change to be
> formatted
as RSS/XML. One of the best things about RSS news feeds is that
> one no
longer has to receive e-mail alerts from news services to keep
> abreast
of a particular topic, etc. One of the primary complaints of my
> co-librarians
is that they get too much e-mail. Part of it is the listservs
> that we ambitiously
subscribe to but even when received in digest format, we
> often don't have
time to read. 
> 
> I imagine that the listserv would begin to resemble
a blog where the
> contributions are not e-mailed to a server but entered
into a web form by
> users using some form of authentication. They would
then be formatted into
> XML and readable by an RSS reader for lurkers like
me.  If this format was
> adopted it would permit subscribers to opt out
of the e-mail messages and
> just check via their RSS feed reader. I know
that some e-mail distribution
> lists (one-way listservs) have begun posting
content as XML for RSS users.
> But could it be done for a multiple-user/contributor
list?
> 
> I know that recently many of you said that you prefer e-mail
notification,
> etc. but I wonder if anyone else has thought that something
like this is
> workable. 
> Anyway . . . just a thought. I'll go back in
the corner now.
> 
> 
> 
> Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2005 15:36:45 -0600
> From:
"Sloan, Bernie" <bernies at uillinois.edu>
> To: "Multiple recipients of list"
<web4lib at webjunction.org>
> Subject: Lurkers & Web4Lib
> Message-ID:

> <B541AA7C7356014BA26BE8A5D72B89AF4FF9D9 at pbmail.ui.uillinois.edu>
> 
>
 . . . This is just an FYI. Like Bill said, there's nothing wrong with
>
being a
> lurker. And if the posting rate was higher, Web4Lib would probably

> collapse under the volume of message traffic. If even only one out of
> every ten subscribers posted on the average of one note a day, we'd all

> be getting over 300 e-mails a day from Web4Lib!
> 
> 
> Alvin Hutchinson

> Smithsonian Institution Libraries
> National Zoological Park
> Washington,
DC    20008
> hutchinsona at si.edu
> 202.673.4771
> 
>