[Nottingham] Too much traffic

[Robert Davies]

On Thursday 06 March 2003 10:51, you wrote:
> > Aren't mailing lists ideal for high-traffic?
>
> No, they're not, because each message has to be emailed to each member
> on the list. If the number of users increases or the number of messages
> increases, the overall traffic on the lists server rises with a N^2
> complexity. A forum's traffic would be closer to linear.

Only if ppl ignore most of the messages.  With a forum I suspect your traffic 
will rapidly tend -> 0, as folk like myself would have to remember to 'poll' 
it.  I am unlikely to do that.

Email -> Mail List exploder -> User's Mail Server multiple-receivers ->  1 
message per user address

Forum Post -> Save in Forum -> ISP Proxy Cache -> Read (if every user reads 
it) 1 message per user

When you email back to the list, your N^2 is  assuming that your message is 
received and replied to by every receiver which is patently not true.

Maybe what you meant is a forum will get viewed less and ppl will post on it 
less, well I agree with that.

> I have to say, I don't read all the threads on this list, because
> there is just too much. I've just returned from a 3 day (work related)
> trip to Belgium, and I come back to a mailbox with 164 unread messages.
> It's very unlikely I'll read them all (discounting the UCE which just
> gets trashed).

How would that change with a websitite?

Frankly I feel one of the advantages of the current mail list, is that I can 
filter them into folders, and later on search through the whole thing, when I 
want to lookup something that has been covered well.

Rob