This is an attempt to qualify the time I have spent on BumpList.
I first logged on on July 29th, or about 2557 (real) days ago.
It took me about 2 1/2 days to reach 24 logged hours on the list, and just over 36 hours later I had 48 hours logged. The main reason that the second 'day' on the list went faster is because it was a weekend and there were fewer people subscribing. The first full day of trying to stay on the list was difficult, partly due to the Lockergnome newsletter and the traffic it generated. I managed to keep going with it and get some real work done at the same time, but it was not easy.
The List is very addicting. Not only is there a feeling of accomplishment to staying on for a long period of time, there is a feeling of frustration with the You Got Bumped e-mail appearing in the Inbox. The conversations that I feel a part of are suddenly cut off, and by the time I am able to resubscribe, I have missed a lot of the exchanges that have taken place. But life sometimes requires more than just staying on the list.
I stayed up very late that night so I could get my stats up.
The second day on the list was a busy one, because the New York Times had run a piece on Bumplist, and there was a flood of people checking it out. Bumps were flying fast and furious that day too, but not as much as what Lockergnome seemed to produce.
There seem to be a lot of people who try the List and give up after a bump or two. My advice is to stick with it for a while. There are a lot of BumpListers who stay on almost all of their waking time, and that helps produce a feeling of community. Whenever it is convenient for you to be on, there are bound to be a few 'regulars' on at that same time, and it is possible to get to know them whether they post to the list with conversational comments, or simply post their laundry list, one item at a time.
The statistics were in place when I first joined the List, but they weren't always there. I really believe that the stats are a major factor in retaining people's interest on the List - there are too many people who would give up if they did not see how their participation compared to others on the list. I know that I was motivated to see who else was on and to try to get on the Hall of Fame for one category or another.
One person was having problems with AOL blocking their posts to the List(considering them to be spam) and was getting other BListers' input on alternative ISPs. In the course of the discussion, they decided that they really needed to get a real ISP, but were upset with the fact that they would eventually lose their standing in the HOF.
Just as with any online collaboration among people, there have been a few flame wars. I has been interesting to see how these have played out, and how the personalities involved have taken it. One BLister started posting Top Ten lists, one item at a time and caught a lot of flack for that. They are still mentioned when someone else starts doing that, and they seem to take that in stride.
Someone that had been sending HTML e-mails to the List was asked to stop doing so in a rather humorous way. At least I thought it was humorous, but the BLister being asked to desist did not take it that way. Several others found the request to be out of line, and it took most of a Saturday afternoon to get things calmed down on the List. The people that were upset by the initial request seemed to learn some of the basics about posting to a mailing list, but some of them felt that the BLister who made the request was trying to be mean. That feeling still shows up in some posts, even after a week of relative calm.
Aside from the messages that people send to the List, I have found that aspects of a BLister's personality is reflected in HOW they post.
One lady seems to post the lyrics to whatever song is playing at the time, and she posts it all in the Subject Line; rarely does she add a message body.
Some people add their comments to the bottom of a reply rather than at the top.
Some folks trim the Original Messages when they reply, and some folks delete the original message, and some leave the whole thread in, no matter HOW long it is.
One thing we all seem to do at one time or another is ignore the Subject Line when we reply. Someone posted a URL in the Subject Line, and was attacked for spamming the list. I joined in, and it took another BLister to make me realise that the URL was still in the Subject Line every time I replied. That goes hand in hand with a long string of Subject Lines with nothing more that "RE" in them.
The List was 'broken' for a while one Sunday afternoon, and although there is no way to know for sure, it seemed that a BLister trying to determine the maximum length of an E-mail address or Subject line might have hosed the database for a few hours. My only regret was that I was not on the List when that happened. I missed out on several hours of List Time that six lucky people were able to accumulate.
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