Anyone interested in a message board/mailing list?
April 30, 2014Nell S. and I have been talking about the possibility of a place to discuss…whatever it is I write about and we talk about here. I usually refer to it as “outdated popular fiction.” We were initially talking about a message board, but message boards intimidate me, so now we’re also talking about a Google/Yahoo group-style mailing list.
My thoughts are basically as follows: I’ve moderated Google Groups, and they’re super easy to use and allow you to participate in discussions via email but don’t really let you organize or preserve information in any useful way (although GG does have tagging and categories). And if you do participate via email, it’s hard to avoid spoilers.
Message boards let you organize things via category, which is nice, but I find them inherently kind of clunky. And it’s hard to read everything on a message board the way you can when you’ve got everything on a mailing list coming to your inbox.
It seems like there’s a lot more discussion going on here lately, and that’s awesome, but blog comments aren’t the best place to talk. So: are you guys interested in some kind of discussion space? Any preferences on type?
Redeeming Qualities 
I think it would be fun.
Meanwhile, have you checked out Librarything.com? They have groups (a message board) there, with at least one group that is similar: “Tattered but still lovely”: https://www.librarything.com/groups/tatteredbutstilllove
Of course, moderating your own group allows you to retain control over who posts there, which may or may not have some appeal…
That group definitely looks interesting, although it skews later than we do here. And I really enjoy the group name.
I am definitely interested in a discussion board!
My choice would be for a mailing list, because I always forget to go check message boards.
But something of the sort would definitely be cool!
Yeah, I kind of feel the same way. The nice thing about Google Groups is that they can also sort of be used as web forums, so I’m experimenting with that.
How about a Goodreads group? It offers message board categorization of discussion topics, can be set up with a moderator if you wish, AND sends an email (to every member who wishes to receive them) any time anything is posted, making it easy to follow conversations.
Whatever you choose, I’ll be signing up for.
Being in a Goodreads group was actually my most recent bad experience with a message board. Getting an email that requires you to go to the website is infuriating.
I read the blog regularly and would love a message board:)
Mailing list like Yahoo groups (although since Yahoo seems to screw around with them all the time maybe not Yahoo) and not message board, please.
I love your posts and everyone’s comments but message boards and I just don’t quite jive.
Thank you.
Yeah, I feel similarly. People on the Google Group I used to moderate were always talking about moving to a message board, but one of the most active members refused to move to anything that wouldn’t let him respond to posts by email, and I was pretty deeply in sympathy with him.