Guest guest Posted December 21, 2005 Report Share Posted December 21, 2005 Hey all, I've been enjoying all the discussions of late on SFBAVeg and BAARN. I do notice, however, that many messages are cross-posted on both lists. To those of us on both lists, this adds up to a lot of redundant mail. Can anyone think of a constructive way to reduce cross-posting? Perhaps delineating the main intent of each list, so messages are deemed appropriate primarily for one list vs. the other? If not, no biggie. I guess I could just to one or the other. Thanks,Sara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 22, 2005 Report Share Posted December 22, 2005 Hello Sara and others, In regards to Sara's comment: " I do notice, however, that many messages are cross-posted on both lists. To those of us on both lists, this adds up to a lot of redundant mail. Can anyone think of a constructive way to reduce cross-posting? Perhaps delineating the main intent of each list, so messages are deemed appropriate primarily for one list vs. the other?" I think that's an interesting comment ... generally, I am all for efficiency and reducing redundancy, but in this case, I think it serves a valid purpose. Here's some background and reasons "why" the two lists came about. SFBAVEG (SF Bay Area Vegetarians) is for vegetarian and animal rights stuff, and on occasion it tops 200 messages a month. It was one of the first local lists to use (it started in 2001) and I think it is one of the largest public local lists; currently there's about 1200 rs. And, if you post an event to SFBAVEG, it gets manually forwarded on to a special events-only list that has another 500+ rs (SFBAVEG-EVENTS). For folks who don't want even that volume, we started to do a monthly newsletter for Bay Area Vegetarians' events and activities ( http://BayAreaVeg.org/news ) Sometimes the discussions on SFBAVEG are AR oriented (example - recent discussion about the term 'animal racism') versus vegetarian (example - discussion about soy), and there's always lots of event posts for activist and social events. BAARN (Bay Area Animal Rights Network) was started last year to fill a niche of people who only wanted the animal rights stuff, not the event notices for vegan food parties, restaurant outings, and other discussions not animal rights related. BAARN's message volume is typically less than SFBAVEG. My perspective is this - as we have different TV stations like CBS, ABC, NBC, we have SFBAVEG, BAARN, and other "channels" (or mailing lists) to stay connected to what's happening locally (or nationally, depending on the list). In a general sense, SFBAVEG is a "general interest" list for vegetarianism and animal rights, whereas BAARN and other groups/lists like QVSSF (Queer Vegetarian Society San Francisco) are a "specialty" lists for a more specific interest. Typically posts that get sent to BAARN and QVSSF may be posted SFBAVEG, but everything that gets posted to SFBAVEG may not be appropriate for QVSSF and BAARN. For SFBAVEG - I definitely want people to continue to post vegetarian and animal rights stuff to SFBAVEG. In fact, I encourage it. For those not aware of SFBAVEG, it is a list for the community managed by Bay Area Vegetarians ( http://BayAreaVeg.org ). It is open for discussion, local news & alert posts, as well as event posts; both individuals and other organizations are welcome and encouraged to post about their events and activities related to vegetarianism or animal rights. Anyways, yes, there is some overlap. But I think it is unavoidable. I think we are a stronger community by having vegetarianism and animal rights together on SFBAVEG, and not being separate. The diversity is important and it allows a cross-pollination of ideas. In having a common place to share information, hopefully we can educate and learn from each other. Today's aspiring vegetarian may be tomorrow's vegan activist, and today's vegan activist may enjoy taking a break from leafleting and just socialize with other veggie people. I know that I definitely find myself in both camps -- I enjoy the social activities and I think the animal rights activities and discussions are equally important. Likewise, I think there is value in having just a list for animal rights stuff. If someone wants to stay in touch with the AR community, but isn't up for the volume of SFBAVEG, BAARN is an excellent choice. I think it does, however, get confusing when people reply to a discussion happening on one list to both lists. But typically the same post can get sent to both lists, and it may spark different responses because the audiences are so different. Posting guidelines for SFBAVEG are sent to all new rs and automatically every month. I believe the same is true for BAARN. For SFBAVEG and BAARN, you can find them at http://www.bayareaveg.org/posts.htm baarn SFBAVEG and BAARN are both wonderful resources, and it's great to see them both vibrant and actively used. Additionally, for folks interested in finding out more about other local groups, a good starting point is our resources page: http://www.BayAreaVeg.org/resources Cheers, Tammy Map it Veg! http://www.frappr.com/baveg http://www.frappr.com/vegetarians "This is my protest against the conduct of the world. To be a vegetarian is to disagree--to disagree with the course of things today. Starvation, world hunger, cruelty, waste, wars--we must make a statement against these things. Vegetarianism is my statement and I think it's a strong one." -- Isaac Bashevis Singer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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