Neothoughts

Recently, Mu implored upon the Netscape community to not abuse the site-mail feature. I agree with Mu. Site-mail has been integral in putting the “social” in “social news” on Netscape. But there is a fine line between being social and being a nuisance. Mass site-mailing every submission you make to everyone on your friend list is, in my opinion, somewhere on the nuisance side of the line.

To date I have used the mass-mail feature once: in an attempt to summon as many people as I could to a scheduled Netscape chat when it began.

Aside from that I think it’s worth encouraging users send stories to people who they think will enjoy them (whether they submitted them or not). People are excited about the news on Netscape and that is worth fostering.

At the same time, I have yet to come across a story that I honestly thought every single user on my friends list would enjoy. 1 or 2 times a week, I usually come across a story that I think a lot of people would enjoy but may not see. Here’s what I have been doing in this situation lately:

1. Open the “Your Friends’ Recent Activity” page. A link to yours can be found in your “Friends” page. Mine is here. This page displays recent votes, comments and submissions by your friends.

2. Scan down the page and send a message to anyone who you honestly think will like the story you have found. Individualize each message by addressing them by name so that they know they aren’t receiving a mass message.

3. Refresh the page. The page will display any new activity by your friends since the page loaded previously.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3.

I have found that this method has numerous benefits. If you promote a story this way, you are ensuring that you are only sending it to people who you honestly think will enjoy it. You aren’t mass-mailing and therefore the risk of annoying people is almost completely nullified. You are pinging people who you know are recently active and most likely still on the site and willing to give the story you found their attention. Since they’re already on the site, you aren’t adding to a bulk of messages that are accumulating while they are away and that they will likely gloss over once they return to the site. In short, it achieves what you want in a more socially conscious way.

People would be sending each other stories whether Netscape had site-mail or not. If it wasn’t via site-mail then it would be via email or IM. It was therefore a smart move for Netscape to internalize this, keeping the activity on the site where it can generate more advertisements served and pages viewed. I would love to see them further enhance the user’s ability to connect other users with content.

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