Are mailing lists in decline?
An Internet search quickly reveals that some long-time list moderators believe the use of mail lists is on the decline (Open Source Paleontologist; UK Web Focus). With the diversity of participatory services available, it does seem possible that the old style, email-only lists are less popular. We would not put Google Groups in this category because while our focus was on email, participation in a Group can occur in multiple ways. So many combinations of services are now available. Ironically, while some see a down turn in the use of email (see our review of the PEW study of how adolescents communicate with their trends), other new services have been developed which allow a user to post to a blog (e.g., Posterous) or share a photo (Flickr ) by using email. Perhaps a better way to approach this issue is to ask whether an email-only approach would best serve the project or communications task you wish to address.
Removing yourself from an email list (unsubscribing).
We include this segment based on personal observation and because we encourage you to join a list or two as a way of exploring and understand that this may not be a long term commitment. Here is what we have observed. People often find it easier to join than to exit a list. Sometimes they are given instructions on list functions when they join and forget these instructions or they are unable to find the instructions for unsubscribing in the content provided by list. There are many reasons for unsubscribing; sometimes a user finds the volume of content is too much, the focus of the group is not what was expected, or something said on the list is just to irritating to endure. Too often, it seems, these individuals complain to the group. If this is done in a respectful way, someone will often be willing to provide the necessary information. However, often, the inability to figure out how to unsubscribe results in venting behavior. Hence, we urge you when subscribing to also investigate how to unsubscribe. This is just good etiquette. We would not want to be accused of contributing to negative online behavior so here are the instructions for how to unsubscribe from a Google Group.