[Web4lib] Content announcements (WAS: Mobenzi > Mobile-Phone-Based Empowerment)

[Andrew Hankinson]

Sorry Walt, no offense intended. I was actually trying to illustrate  
what I thought was a very good way of making content announcements. I  
think your Cites & Insights posts are a fantastic example of how large  
chunks of content (a journal, a blog, etc.) can be sent to the list  
with minimal intrusion.

In this case, what I'm particularly objecting to is the constant  
barrage of e-mails, almost daily, announcing a new post. I would  
certainly have no problem if Gerry were to compile his posts into a  
monthly digest and send them out. The content isn't the problem; it's  
the volume of it along with the (almost blatant) need to drive visits  
to his site. (His e-mail announcing his traffic yesterday is a telling  
example of what he thinks about this list: Eyeballs & mouse-clicks.)

Please don't remove Web4Lib from your monthly announcements. It's a  
valuable service to the community, and you have been respectful of  
people's inboxes while still providing valuable content. I just wish  
others would exercise the same restraint.

-Andrew

On 2-Feb-10, at 10:38 AM, Walt Crawford wrote:

> I feel the need to offer two comments:
>
> 1. There is no such thing as a weekly digest of Cites & Insights  
> emails. Cites & Insights is a monthly ejournal (sometimes slightly  
> more than monthly), and I *currently* send an announcement of each  
> issue to Web4Lib. It's not at all an aggregation of blog posts.  
> (Andrew may be thinking of Current Cites--but, in fact, that's also  
> monthly and not a "digest" or aggregation of blog posts.)
>
> 2. Since there's a dislike for announcements--one I partially share-- 
> I'll remove Web4Lib from the monthly announcement list. If you want  
> to be informed of new issues of Cites & Insights, sign up for my  
> blog (Walt at Random, http://walt.lishost.org) or the single-purpose  
> announcement blog (C&I Alerts, http://cical.blogspot.com). I was  
> going to *ask* whether I should remove the Web4Lib announcement, but  
> it's probably the right thing to do.
>
> -walt crawford-
>
> On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 7:11 AM, Andrew Hankinson <andrew.hankinson at gmail.com 
> > wrote:
> Agreed. "Just use the delete key" isn't a real solution. Maybe Gerry  
> could
> aggregate his blog posts and send a digest out weekly, similar to  
> the "Cites
> & Insights" e-mails.
>
> Gerry: would that be an acceptable compromise?
>
> -Andrew
>
> On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 8:53 AM, Matthew Zimmerman <
> Matthew.Zimmerman at utsouthwestern.edu> wrote:
>
> > >From a constructive criticism point of view, I would read your  
> emails or
> > blog posts more often Gerry if there wasn't such information  
> overload. Like
> > others, I get your updates each day, sometimes multiple times a  
> day from at
> > least three different sources (this list, my Facebook email, and  
> my gmail
> > account which receives updates from Facebook). Sadly I just ignore  
> them now,
> > perhaps to my loss, but when you see so many updates it becomes  
> white noise.
> >
> >
> >
> > Matthew Zimmerman
> > Manager
> > Digital Services and Technology Planning
> > UT Southwestern Medical Center Library
> > Tel: 214-648-4873
> >
> > matthew.zimmerman at utsouthwestern.edu
> > www.utsouthwestern.edu/library
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Web4lib mailing list
> > Web4lib at webjunction.org
> > http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
> >
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