[NABS-L] Purpose of the NABS Email List in the 21st Century?

Tue Aug 7 03:31:34 UTC 2018

Dear all,

This is a great topic of discussion. As has been pointed out several
times, this thread is still highly relevant. I want to point out that
additionally, from a marketing standpoint, and I use that term
loosely, NABS caters to not just students. We are a proud division of
the National Federation of the Blind, which encompasses a vast
audience that includes people of all ages and situations in life. I
did not have a Facebook until 2015, nor a Twitter until 2017. I still
primarily use email because it's a great way to communicate in an
organized manner. I don't have time to read a million tweets per day.
Also, I'm sure there are some significantly less young folks out there
who would prefer to use email rather than Facebook or Twitter. And to
be honest, I don't check Facebook groups that often myself. As issues
in blindness education are being increasingly highlighted, I think
it's important to start reaching out to younger audiences and like
someone said earlier, parents often prefer to have a little more
filtering, which is slightly more possible with email.

Matt suggested that a board member or someone on the outreach team
could possibly post the content of email list discussions on Facebook
and/or Twitter each day. While I think that could be a good idea, I
would suggest posting discussion threads that just include the topics
of discussion, rather than all the emails. That could get really
tedious. There are people on social media who may not be on email so
much, and they could definitely have some thoughts to contribute.

Thank you all for a lively discussion. I want to reiterate the
importance of email in all aspects of life. I receive about a hundred
emails per day, including my Stanford inbox, and I write electronic
correspondence for school, work, personal stuff, advocacy, and the
list goes on and on. The NABS list is just as important to me as any
of the other correspondence I read and write. Long live the NABS
listserv! :)

Best,
Cricket X. Bidleman (she/her/hers)
Stanford University | Class of 2021

On 8/6/18, Littlefield, Tyler via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> I feel like this question has been asked already, but it's worth
> repeating: what is the purpose of this thread? is this musings of a
> member, or are there discussions about this list in terms of leadership?
>
> It's worth note that there are social media platforms, but not all of
> them are viable for conveying your thoughts, ideas and questions.
> Twitter limits you generally to 280 characters unless you want to
> long-tweet your novel which is doable but harder to read, threads are
> generally harder to follow, etc. This also requires that there be a
> network of all blind students following each other, and they might
> clutter your timeline with other garbage that you dont' wish to see. So
> the tl/dr version of this is simply that Twitter is not viable for heavy
> discussion, searching and following individual threads without some work.
>
> Facebook lends itself to these kinds of discussions, but it's harder for
> people to follow--groups and group posts can get hidden, for some of us
> it's harder to filter--I have all nabs stuff going into a separate
> folder that I can look through when I want, for example and it's
> slightly less anonymous. That last bit is important to me because my
> email isn't going to mean that a thread response has everyone and their
> mother dog and cat adding me to Facebook simply because we have the
> mutual characteristic of having defective eyeballs and friends in common.
>
> I think the fact that this thread has gotten so much response in a short
> amount of time is a great indicator of the fact that this list is still
> alive and kicking. It's still a great way to send information back and
> forth, and in the months when most people are in classes (note that this
> is summer) there is much more activity generally. It's also worth note
> that most people have their own platform of choice: voice messaging
> systems, smoke signals, owl, Facebook, Twitter, and trying to branch out
> across all of them and bring students together is going to make the task
> of being able to help each other all the more daunting.
>
> Thanks,
> Ty
>
>
> On 8/6/2018 10:18 PM, Elizabeth Mohnke via NABS-L wrote:
>> Hello All,
>>
>> As the National Association of Blind Students reaches out to new members
>> and new partners, there has been an increase in various media platforms
>> used to connect with these new members and partners. So in the new age of
>> media platforms, how do you see the NABS email list fitting in with these
>> other media platforms?
>>
>> What do you believe should be the purpose of the NABS email list now that
>> we use other media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter? Do you still
>> see a role for the NABS email list among these new media platforms? If so
>> what do you believe the role of the NABS email list should be among these
>> new media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter?
>>
>> I feel as though the discussion on the NABS email list has decreased as
>> other media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have become more
>> popular. So I am just curious if there is still a place for the NABS email
>> list in the 21st century.
>>
>> I look forward to receiving your ideas in regards to this matter.
>>
>> Warm regards,
>> Elizabeth
>> _______________________________________________
>> NABS-L mailing list
>> NABS-L at nfbnet.org
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> NABS-L:
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/tyler%40tysdomain.com
>
>
> --
>
> Take Care,
> Tyler Littlefield
>
> Tyler Littlefield Consulting: website development and business
> solutions. <http://tylerlittlefield.me> My personal site
> <http://tysdomain.com> My Linkedin
> <https://www.linkedin.com/in/ty-lerlittlefield> @Sorressean on Twitter
> <http://twitter.com/sorressean>
> _______________________________________________
> NABS-L mailing list
> NABS-L at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> NABS-L:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/cricketbidleman%40gmail.com
>