Forum v. Mailing List

[Anonymous]

Jeff - Thanks for all of your hard work on DC Urban Moms. I subscribed just before the birth of our daughter over 4 yrs ago and have found it such an amazing resource.

I really like the website a lot, but I am a little confused about the difference between forums and the mailing list. I traditionally have posted to the mailing list. When should I be using the forum instead? Thanks! SASHA

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Jeff - Thanks for all of your hard work on DC Urban Moms. I subscribed just before the birth of our daughter over 4 yrs ago and have found it such an amazing resource.

I really like the website a lot, but I am a little confused about the difference between forums and the mailing list. I traditionally have posted to the mailing list. When should I be using the forum instead? Thanks! SASHA

Sasha:

There is no real answer to your question. The website and the mailing list serve many of the same purposes, so the choice between them is basically one of personal preference. Some exceptions to this are "nanny ads" which cannot be posted on the mailing list -- they can only be posted on the website. Being a mailing list subscriber in many ways requires more of a commitment. You need to go through the sign-up process and then the mail comes every day whether you feel like reading it or not. The website is more suitable for those with a causal interest -- especially since anonymous posting is allowed.

Rather remarkably, the mailing list and website have developed very independently and there is not a whole lot of overlap between the two groups. While there are more mailing list subscribers than there are active website users, the website gets more posts per day. The mailing list is probably a better place to get a question answered but the website is better for discussion. A thread with over 100 posts is manageable on the website whereas that would be cumbersome via email. Our goal for the future is to try to bring the two communities together through the weblog and by adding more informational resources such as DCUM TopDoctors to the website.