This is a very frustrating experience for the community member who has communicated something important, and the number of possible explanations for the silence of one's peers is probably infinite. However, through extensive and rigorous research (i.e., staring into space for almost half an hour), I was able to ascertain that 90% of an email distribution list's unresponsiveness (and 80% of a web-based community's unresponsiveness) to one's posts can be remedied by following these suggestions:
- Trim, trim, trim! Unnecessary repetitions of previous posts, list footers, and signature lines are tedious for other members to negotiate. If you're replying to a previous message, trim away everything but the essentials of that message and your response to it.
- Double-check your subject line, and make sure that it summarizes the topic. In most email distribution lists, if you subscribe to the digest format of the list, then the subject line will automatically be something like "Digest Number 123." Change it to something more topical.
- Set your out-of-office auto-response so that it does not reply to every post on the list. When I'm moderating an email distribution list, I usually trim these out-of-office messages away before all the other list members have to see them, but sometimes they slip though.
- Write your posts for an international readership. For example, at last count, the membership of the Information Systems Forum exceeded 2,700 people in about 60 countries. Therefore, it's a good idea to explain local references. For example, if you mention that there's a great nonprofit technology assistance provider in "Southie," people like me will understand that you're referring to South Boston (Massachusetts, USA), but anyone who has never lived in Boston will be baffled. You may also need to consider how members who live in countries other than your own can benefit from your announcements. For example, if you are planning a get-together for nonprofit techies in New York City tomorrow evening, posting an announcement to the Information Systems Forum today is not a strategy that gives members in Estonia, Thailand, and Argentina enough time to make travel plans! Perhaps you can make the announcement a month in advance, or provide a link to a web site that will fill them in on the event after it's over.
- Identify yourself.
It's amazing to see the number of folks who post without provide their
names or geographic locations. Unless you have an urgent need for
anonymity, you should definitely say who are where you are. If
you represent an organization, state your affiliation clearly. If
you are writing as a member of a community or constituency, be sure to
stipulate what it is.
The underlying principle here is that if you consistently post items in a way that is readable and useful to other members of your online communities, then your urgent queries and brilliant ideas are more likely to inspire helpful responses.
