Chatham Chatlist is a daily source of local news and information for over 2,500 online members

Posted Wednesday, February 20, 2008

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Daily e-mail digest just celebrated its 3,040th edition

Pittsboro, NC - The Chatham Chatlist, a daily e-mail digest that now has 2,500 subscribers, began in 1997. It grew out of citizen interest in Gene Galin's first online efforts in 1993, when he set up one Web page and filled it with links to Web sites he thought would interest his fellow Chatham residents. "It's a snapshot of the history of the county over the last ten years," says Galin, a history major in college who envisions historians one day poring over the archives.

In addition to the daily e-mail digest that just celebrated its 3,040th edition, Galin also maintains the Chatham Online Bulletin Board which averages over 37,000 views a week. There you will find dozens of conversation "threads" about a variety of local and national issues. Go to chatham-county-nc.com/bulletinboard/

"I look at it like neighbors talking across the fence, but instead of the fence being in your yard, it's all the way across Chatham County," says Galin, who compiles and distributes the chatlist in his free time, when he's not working as an information specialist at Duke OIT or parenting his three kids.

The chatlist works this way: You subscribe and post messages via e-mail, and then each day, all the postings arrive in your inbox as one long e-mail "digest" with a table of contents. You can post replies to the whole list for the next day's digest, or e-mail other contributors "off-list" one-on-one.

Of the 2,500 subscribers, Galin estimates about 10 percent actually post, with the other 90 percent labeled "lurkers"--people who read regularly but don't post any discussion messages.

Each week, Friday's “Classified” digests are reserved for a virtual yard sale, and once a year, just before the holiday shopping season, Galin dedicates space on the list for local business owners to introduce themselves and their companies.

Keeping up the list and bulletin board is a relatively simple task, says Galin, who does it all from his home computer with software he bought with help from a few chatlisters. The e-mail digest is text-only. All attachments are stripped off by the software program. He set it up to be as automated as possible, and on an average day, he says it takes just a few minutes to cull through the posts, compile and distribute them.

Working on a series of historical Chatlist books

As a history major Galin has expressed a genuine interest in preserving this unique historical collection written by a group of “extraordinary ordinary people." This is why he has begun the job of compiling select chatlist posts into a book. The first in a planned series of books covers the period from January – June 2006. The book will be self-published via lulu.com and runs about 400 pages. A first draft has been printed for proofing purposes and Galin hopes to have copies available for sale online starting in April. He would like to be able to donate copies to the Chatham libraries as well as the Southern Historical Collection at UNC’s Wilson Library.

What is the Chatlist?
By Larry Back 2/7/08
I see the essence of the Chatlist this way. The Chatham Chatlist is a neighbor-to-neighbor community forum. In many ways, the Chatlist represents a return to small-town rural America, hearkening to a time when your friends and neighbors were the primary sources of information about who needs help, who does good work, and what local news is worth broadcasting. As was true of word of mouth in those days, the Chatlist is inclusive, and all communications within the bounds of good taste (and occasionally, some that may live perilously close to that border) are used without embellishment. Entries are not edited for the finer points of grammar or syntax, and those very imperfections provide a flavor to the list that enables contributors to feel comfortable expressing themselves without the fear of undue scrutiny or the need to observe editorial protocols. The venue is popular with readers and contributors across demographic and economic spectrums because it is genuine and devoid of pretense in the most transparent of ways. It is, after all, the figurative back fence, across which you and your neighbor inquire, share, vent, and argue.

What is the Chatlist?
By Carol Windsor 2/6/08
The Chatham Chatlist is the front porch of Chatham County - Where neighbors discuss what's going on, share experiences, opinions and recipes, give and get advice. All that's missing is the big ole glass of ice tea.
 

What is the Chatlist?
By Mark Stinson 2/6/08
To put a definition to the chatlist would be difficult as it is different things to different people. To some it's a way to advertise on Friday to sell odds n ends and make people aware of yard sales and ser-vices. To others it's a forum to debate politics and vent frustrations over government issues. Many simply lurk in the background not posting anything to read the rantings and raving of others or to see what's going on in the community. I for one have used it for all of the above and to express myself in ways I could never do otherwise. It has opened doors for me not only to others in Chatham County but the world.

Growing up I attended church on Sunday and there was always a group of men or women that talked immediately after church. It was the local gossip get-together where everyone found out what everyone else was doing. Sometimes gos-sip got out of hand but as a rule it was an important source of information to others as to what was going on in the community.

We depended on opinions of fellow church goers for politics and community events. There were always groups of men sitting at Reno Sharp’s store debating politics and county government whilst discussing what kind of feed will top out their hogs quicker. The women folk would gather at the grocery store or one of the Wednesday night church events to dis-cuss what the men were up to and every-thing else related in the community.

I came along after the telephone started to replace many of these gatherings with quick conversations from the convenience of home. Everyone still gathered and communicated in the same ways but the telephone increased the speed information traveled around the community. It’s lightning fast, if you don't believe me go hug your neighbor’s spouse in their front yard, you will get phone calls later in the day to ask how long you have been having a fling with them :)

The only thing is with the phone you can only reach so many people with in-formation depending on how many you know. As anything else things tend to be exaggerated from one person to the other and a cut finger will become a broken arm in a half hours time.

I was introduced to the chatlist by a friend who felt I could benefit from voicing my opinions in an online community. I wasn't sure how I would fit in but I real-ized the chatlist was a beautiful combination of all of the above forms of person to person communication but better. There is a diverse group of people from all walks of life that subscribe to this new technological wonder that regularly voice their opinions and often will tell you yours. I like many others felt a bit disconnected from other parts of the county. I didn't understand many things that went on and I was critical over people I didn't even know. The chatlist enabled me to meet many people from all over this county and gave me a new sense of community. I realized we all have a voice to be heard and this is a perfect place to speak it. The wonderful thing is unlike person to person communication, what you say is read ex-actly as you write it. Everyone hears it right out of the horse’s mouth. It eliminates a good deal of exaggeration (unless we are discussing politics and there will always be tall tales with that subject). Everyone can form a personal opinion what you say in their own way and voice their thought back to you or the entire group as a whole. There is no lost mean-ing through the word of mouth as your statement is passed along online exactly as you voiced it.

In a generic way I would define the chatlist as an electronic community bulletin board moderated for basic discussion of community events, classifieds and county politics. To me it is a great deal more. It's a place to meet new friends, socialize and learn new things about my community.

It ties the entire county together and keeps us connected. It is the end result of many years of different types of person-to-person communication that make us all neighbors and friends. It’s an important part of what makes Chatham County a great place to live.

Goodnite Mark :)

To view some previous chatlist digests go to chathamchatlist.com
To subscribe to the chatlist simply send an email with the word SUBSCRIBE in the heading to chatlist-at-bellsouth.net