Dynamic Sublists: Scaling Unmoderated Mailing Lists

Unmoderated electronic mailing lists suffer from the paradox that the more successful they are, the more difficult they are to use and administer because of the increasing number of users and discussions. Traditional solutions to this problem, such as creating static sublists or providing a Web interface, are not always desirable. We discuss the problems with traditional solutions and present dynamic sublists, an approach to scaling online communities that increases communication opportunities without overwhelming users or administrators. We have built a system, Javamlm, implementing dynamic sublists, and report on its implementation, use, and future.