E-lists, Democracy, and Name Misspellings

July 6th, 2005

Chrystie over at BlogJuncton blogs about memberships, communities, and democracy (heavy stuff, but a topic that truly interests me). Yes, we did have a “boisterous discussion” about E-lists and how I thought (and still think) that they will die. She thought otherwise (Note: WebJunction does have a somewhat vested interest in library lists as they recently started hosting a bunch of them). During the exchange, I asked Chrystie if she thought E-lists were democratic. She said yes and I disagreed, due to the fact that they require membership and that not everything that gets posted to an E-list gets sent out, just as not all comments posted to a weblog actually wind up on the site (this is usually due to spam issues, but I have had my comments on a certain LIS blog censored by it’s proprietor). How can a system that requires membership or review by a chosen few be truly democratic? Doesn’t one have to “sign up” to vote? I began to get a bit confused with my own thoughts (nothing new there) and was tortured by it for a few weeks.

Thinking back on the conversation, I realize that it was not fair to ask such a question of Chrystie. Democracies are different than open communities (which is where my 10% intoxicated mind was heading when I brought it with Chrysite), of which E-lists, in my opinion, are not. A fully open community requires no membership (even free membership doesn’t cut it). No barriers. No filtering of content. No “approving posts.” I’m not saying that this is an easy task. I offered wikis as an alternative to E-lists, which I think are more open.

I know I’m pushing it with the “E-lists will die” thing (and I must admit nobody has backed me up on it, which tells me something), and just because I say it doesn’t mean it’s correct. It’s just a theory. And if E-lists die, then I guess I’ll look smart. If they don’t then I’ll look silly (It won’t be the first time).

Regarding the use of the word ‘misspellings’ in the title of this post, I think Chrystie spelled my name with a “ph” to get me back for torturing her name in a previous post…

A picture of me and Chrystie before our lengthy discussion.

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