For the lists task I followed the link to the yahoo groups page. I decided to look for a group on photography so I typed that in the search bar 15670 groups appeared! So which one do you choose? CON NO1: Too many groups to choose from, can get confusing. I eventually decided to join the “Digital Photography” group, joining was simple, and all I needed to do was verify my email address. Yahoo gave me a yahoo.com email address, so once I joined the group all the emails went to that address instead of my main address. When I checked my yahoo.com email there was about 50 new emails all from the group. CON NO2: All new posts get sent to your email if you do not check them regularly then your email box will fill up, and also sorting through them to find other important emails. PRO NO1: Great if you want to keep constantly up to date with whats happening. I also found when I was actually on the website that the posts were in the order they were posted, all the topics in one big list. CON NO 3: Actual website hard to follow the thread as they are all posted together.
Discussion boards differ as all the posts in the thread are grouped together under that thread.PRO NO1: Easy to follow . You only need to see updates when you feel that you want to by actually going on the site. PRO NO2: View updates and new posts at your own discretion. CON NO1: You don’t necessarily know when the board has been updated so it is not as convenient as email lists.
Discussion boards offer a more personal type of communication, you feel like you are actual having a conversation with someone despite of course the asynchronous element, and threads are easier to follow.
Lists are different as every time you ‘post’ the update is sent via email to everyone on that list. With the digital photography group I joined there are over 5000 members, so an question posted and sent to all of those people will give you a wider range of viewpoints and advice so that you can possibly find the answer that suits you, where as a discussion board your question is only going to be answered by those that are interested enough to view that thread.
