BumpList - 2003

An Email Community for the Determined!

Description
BumpList is a mailing list aiming to re-examine the culture and rules of online email lists. BumpList only allows for a minimum amount of subscribers so that when a new person subscribes, the first person to subscribe is "bumped", or unsubscribed from the list. Once subscribed, you can only be unsubscribed if someone else subscribes and "bumps" you off. BumpList actively encourages people to participate in the list process by requiring them to subscribe repeatedly if they are bumped off. The focus of the project is to determine if by attaching simple rules to communication mediums, the method and manner of correspondences that occur as well as behaviors of connection will change over time.

Overview
In the digital age, networked communication platforms and mediums are becoming more and more user friendly and allow for multitudes of types of interaction, voices, and exchanges of images, sounds, and text, both synchronously and asynchronously. Messages can be sent, voices can be heard, and events can be realized with organization and clarity that never before existed. In particular, emailing lists have become important means of maintaining ties within groups, relaying important information among peers or collaborators, and forging a sense of community that transcends all national and cultural boundaries.

Currently, we are actively encouraged to join public email lists. Unless a list adheres to certain rules, is password protected, or made private, anyone with a valid email address can join the discussion. We are also used to conventions of email lists such as subscribe/unsubscribe functions, digest mode, broadcast mode, and public archives of threaded messages. BumpList functions like a standard, public listserv, but adds the constraints of limited membership (currently only 5 people can subscribe at once) and the urgency of forcing people to re-subscribe if they get bumped and want to continue the conversations, discussions, arguments in which they are engaged.

Rules
In the discussion there are no rules. BumpList is an open forum just like any other email list. However depending on how much you want to participate in the discussion, it might be to your advantage not to advertise your subscription to the list. The more people you encourage to join, the greater the chance you will be bumped. Currently only 6 people can be on the list at any one time, thus making it an exclusive place so make your voice count!