grafolog@netcom.com is consolidating twenty inactive mailing lists into one
new one that he is about to open, and he asked,
| Is it better to subscribe everybody to the new list, and
| unsubscribe them as requested, or to BCC everybody, asking
| them if they would like to be on the revamped list?
There's no blanket answer to that question; too much depends on details
and on your best guess whether the majority of subscribers to each of the
lists getting consolidated into your new list would want to be on the new
list or not. It might even vary from one to another of the twenty lists
that you are consolidating.
Based only on what you've posted, I'd lean toward inviting everyone but
autosubscribing nobody. Three reasons:
(1) If some of the lists being consolidated into your new one have been inac-
tive for two years, many of their members have lost interest in the topic
in the meanwhile or may have become too busy, even if their interest has
not waned, to read a list about the topic.
(2) If some of the addresses are that old, many of them are invalid now.
Wouldn't you rather get one bounce per stale address for your invitation
than ten per stale address for the ten posts passed through your list
before they are taken off after having been autosubscribed?
(3) As you said, at least one component list has some uninterested members
still on its roster only because their signoffs were never processed.
(4) Since all these component lists have been inactive for a while, sudden
arrival of new list mail would be a surprise to members, and not all
surprises are pleasant. Inviting them instead of autosubscribing them
is less presumptive. The positive option is truly kinder when all other
factors are equal (or they total to equals).
But this is truly a decision to be made and weighted on a case-by-case basis,
and you have twenty cases, not one, to decide here.
References:
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