Mad NewGrouper
From Dar
Mad NewGrouper is a people pattern which afflicts a limited type of person and usually only for a limited period, but the stage can last for many months or longer. The Mad Newgrouper is obsessed with creating new empty groups for every topic they can think of.
Contents |
Symptoms
The mad newgrouper is inspired to create a new group, forum or mailing list at the drop of a hat. The fact that they already administer many many inactive groups doesn't deter them. The can be motivated by an optimistic imagination which tells them "if you build it they will come" or else by a desire to push a system to its limits, dilute other groups of which they are jealous or other less fathomable driving forces.
Context
Mad Newgrouper pattern emerges in systems where anybody can start a new group, or even amongst privileged users in systems with restricted permissions to create groups.
What can be done to counter the mad newgrouper
Try to persuade the mad newgrouper to excercise restraint.
Avoid joining or advertising the new groups
Arguments in favour of Mad Newgrouping
- egalitarian
The egalitarioan argument holds that restricting the rights to create new groups imparts a power imbalance which gives the owners of existing groups and the arbiters of the creation process an unfair power advantage over the ordinary member which solidifies into a beurocratic elite.
- emergence
The emergence argument holds that the system will shake itself down through a process of darwinian selection, by which the groups which flourish will not be the same as those which would have been created under a restrictivly planned system.
Arguments against Mad Newgrouping
- The presence of large numbers of empty groups makes it harder to find lively conversations.
- overlapping groups dilute the effectiveness of the human encyclopedia
- annoying invitations and advertisements for groups which stand no chance of ever acheiving critical mass
