Listserv Love-Hate

Why does it always go like this:

You get excited about a particular issue so you join a listserv, be it through yahoo or whatever user web site offers it.

Digression:
{For those of you just joining us, a listserv is (as described by the good people at James Madison University), "an electronic mailing list of e-mail addresses of people interested in a certain topic or specific area of interest. The purpose is to share announcements or to enable listserv subscribers to communicate with each other to discuss common topics of interest." Every time someone posts a message to the listserv you can choose whether you want to receive each email as it is posted, or receive 10-20 of them in digest format.}

So, as you have no doubt surmised, I joined a couple of listservs a few months ago in the throes of excitement about connecting with others who also do fundraising or live on Capitol Hill, for example. The first couple of days I was delighted to read each email from every shmo who was also on the listserv because you just never knew what exciting stuff you would learn. Then, lo around day 6, I was feeling somewhat "over" the 45 emails in my box every 3 hours, especially when they involved two people chatting about something very specific that should have been personal emails between them instead of posts to the listserv. No matter! I'll just switch to the digest! I'll get 15-20 emails formatted into one email, perhaps twice a day, and I'll be back to lovin' that listserv in no time.

The digest works great for about another couple of weeks as I diligently check each digest email, scan it for interesting tidbits, and then delete or save as appropriate. That works for a couple of weeks more.

***Passage of time****

You want to guess how many unread digest emails I have in my yahoo account now?

At last check, 43. And I can't stand about 3 people who post to these listservs whom I've never even met. I'd take my name off the list....except I'm afraid I'll miss something.