Why Group Email Services Like Yahoogroups Disorganize Groups

So your group just had their first meeting and somebody invariably suggests, why don't we set up a Yahoogroup so we can communicate? For some situations, Yahoogroups (and others like it) is a wonderful tool that helps people send broadcast messages to each other without having to remember everyone's email address. But when group email is used for anything other than broadcasting messages to everyone, you start seeing its limitations. The effect ranges from the mildly annoying to the comically bad.

Collecting information

It's tantalizing easy and efficient to reach everyone in the group by blasting an email to the whole group. Take for instance, getting everybody's contact information and address. It seems easy - send out an email requesting info, and even specifying that they should reply directly to your email address. What invariably happens are people who hit "reply" and copy everybody with their address information.

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To: group@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: Please provide me with your address and contact information

My address is:
123 Main Street Apt. 23
Springfield, OH
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What's worse are people who decide to reply back to the sent information to start a conversation.

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To: group@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: Please provide me with your address and contact information

Oh m'gosh. No way. I used to live in Apt. 22. We could have been neighbors! I hated the building manager. Is Magoo still there?
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What ends up being an innocent request (like asking for everybody's t-shirt size) turns out to be a cascade of reply backs and disgruntled users who now first think "hit delete" every time they see an email from the group. Policing this behavior can make you look like a snob and control freak. It's wholly inefficient to collect information from users using Yahoogroups.

Getting confirmations
Now that the date is set for the party, it's time to send out invitations. What better way than to reach everybody and get a single email back from each person saying exactly what their unchanging plans are? Reality sets in. When you send out that request, everyone gets notified that you are coming.

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To: group@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: 10/15 Group meeting at Greg's house - please RSVP

We're planning to come.
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Thank you, we all had to know that. Try also juggling the follow-ups, like people who have changed their plans at the last minute. Some use evite which helps but if you want to use it more than once for your group you have to rekey in a lot of information. Plus it doesn't help much with planning?

Planning
Theoretically, the Web should be a productivity tool for making our lives easier. Instead when planning an activity it can cause a minor disaster. Take planning for a meeting or a party. Let's say you have 15 items you want people to volunteer for. Invariably, 5 people want to bring the chips (after all, there's no preparation in bringing chips). Jill wants to add to the list because you forgot a few things and Bob wants to let you know you don't have to buy those paper cups because he has a bunch left over from last time. And everybody is sent an email of all the sordid details.

Perhaps you tried sending out a spreadsheet? First of all, nobody opens up the spreadsheet. Not only are there viruses running rampant, people who don't want to take the extra mental leap to click on a file and figure it out. Plus they can't edit it with their change which leaves the owner of the spreadsheet to keep it all maintained, until?

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To: group@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: Please volunteer for this upcoming monthly meeting

Hi, I modified a lot of the spreadsheet to correct a few misspellings and clarify the task. I also added a few items. I also heard from a few of the folks in a side meeting today so I changed all of their tasks to reflect our discussion. Cheers!
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Except that you already have 15 changes that you've done to your version of the spreadsheet that you now have to merge with this new spreadsheet.

Getting Information
When a Yahoogroup gets formed, it often becomes the community. But not all community actions should be done with a bullhorn. Take these information request emails:

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To: group@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Anyone remember where we are meeting?

I can't find that email that says where we are planning to meet. Where is it?
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More reason to filter group emails to a folder that never gets checked.

Discussions and Polling
As is often the case, the group email becomes a central forum for discussion. The problem is that email in general does a poor job of replacing live discussion. What ends up happening are soapbox loving people who write 3 pages of text to get something off their chest. You also get the useful:

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To: group@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: We should change our policy on adding new members

I agree.
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And the always welcome?

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To: group@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: We should change our policy on adding new members

Sorry to jump into this discussion late, but here's my 2 page summary of why I think there's a fifth alternative.
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What's the Problem?
Group email is asynchronous, decentralized and non-transactional. There's no centralized place to keep "the master list" or to "find out the latest information". It also cannot track transactional items like a response to a poll or an RSVP and store that in a consistent form that can be accessed by others.

Instead it is a tool to broadcast to everyone so that everyone knows everything. When information goes to everybody with no way to filter whether it is important or trivial, people invariably tune out.

Group email tools are easy to set up and great for getting people to communicate but are very blunt tools for doing many activities that are core and critical to groups of people. Many group email providers have things like shared calendars and spreadsheets but are difficult to use. People don't have even the time to invest in understanding a solution let alone using one.

At Qlubb, we do provide group emails for the activities that require broadcast but we also provide a whole host of other tools like shared sign up sheets, web publishing of events, photos and resources to provide the needed centralized and transactional component critical to group collaboration. Using tools such as Qlubb help improve the flow of communication while simultaneously reducing email - a welcome combination.