1. Get enough people to carry on the conversation. Often, upwards of 80% of the members on an electronic mail group are "lurkers" - they are interested in the topic and there to "listen", but aren't sending messages to the lists.

2. Get people to check their e-mail every day, or at least several times a week. It is difficult to carry on a conversation if members aren't there to respond to you. You may want to use the "confirm read" option on your mail to see how long it takes the group members to read your message. People are more likely to check e-mail if there is interesting mail waiting for them when they do check it. If it's a known group, you may want to send them a postcard or phone them to let them know their on-line presence is missed.

3. "Salt" the group with interesting talkers, or identify members who commit to getting a conversation started. Identify a couple of list members (perhaps friends, leaders who are relatively vocal, people who like to be noticed) and ask them to start an on-line conversation about a topic that others could comment on and would be interested in. You want people who differ a bit in their opinions, you want it to be acceptable to disagree or offer other opinions. You want people who will model appropriate list behavior: one to send a message, several to respond to that message.

4. Invite responses. Include in your message statements like: What do you think? Has this ever happened to you? What has your school/state/club done before? It helps if the content is something that people are likely to have opinions about, or experience with. It is particularly important to make sure the list doesn't become too "cliquey," that only certain people give opinions, have their messages responded to, or have their responses accepted or agreed with.

5. Respond to messages, but respond with content. If I send a message to the list and get nothing back, I am unlikely to send another. If the list becomes "cluttered" with "I agree" statements but nothing else, it can be boring.

6. Credit and reference message authors. In responding, include part of the original message, and the sender's name.
   "As Brady (brady@isp.com) said,
   > Tech Team has really done a great job getting the web site started.
   > I'd like to see some new features this year. I think..."

   Include enough content so other list members understand the context of your response, but do not forward the entire message.

7. Keep list membership current: senders don't want error messages coming back with bad e-mail addresses. Particularly novice users are flustered when this happens: they don't know how to read the error message, may think it didn't go through to the list, etc. For the list leaders (those who generate a lot of messages), I sometimes ask them to send me their error messages so I can correct them. For other lists, I send a relevant message once a month just so I can check the list for problem addresses.

8. Recognize that people have different expectations. Some people are going to want a dozen messages or more a day, with opportunities to connect. Others are on the list for key content and don't want the clutter of lots of messages. They might leave if the list became too busy. If someone has expectations different from the list, try to refer them to a list that has traffic and content consistent with their needs. Perhaps we could create one if there are enough people to make it worth while.

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