Once they were hosts to lively discussions about academic style and substance, but the time of scholarly e-mail lists has passed, meaningful posts slowing to a trickle as professors migrate to blogs, wikis, Twitter, and social networks like Facebook.
“While I am still on a few listservs, it is mainly because they give me no other option for receiving information,” wrote Kay Cunningham, an electronic-resources librarian at the University of Memphis. “I find them increasingly annoying —even those with digest options, and for the most part I delete them unread.”
One issue is
that when you have less people contributing all it takes is one or two annoying people selling themselves, their products or their ideals the quality/noise ratio changes and it becomes more of a hassle to wade through the bumpf each day, especially if someone is doing the same thing over several lists.
It’s easier to just unsubscribe then. All depends on the quality of the group though.