BumpList is a mailing list aiming to re-examine the culture and rules of email list communities. The main constraint of BumpList is that it only allows for a maximum 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.

Premise

BumpList is an example of an online community that was created to question the fundamental structure of online communities. The project takes a critical look at the traditional form and use of emailing lists by placing emphasis on the “act of belonging” to these lists so that users must constantly subscribe to stay active in the community. This challenges the notion of how digital communities maintain member’s involvement and how the design of these lists impact users’ behaviours.

Details

BumpList launched in May 2003 and has been currently running for nine months. Over this period, BumpList has succeeded in maintaining involvement as users have generated over 66,000 total subscribes, resubscribes and bumps, 30,000 unique email messages, and millions of total hits. The website features a real-time “Hall of Fame” that ranks users activities based on total posts, bumps, and time they have managed to stay subscribed. Observed behaviours from the project range from participants creating personalized statistics pages, one member creating a yahoo group for people unable to stay on the list, attempted hacks of the systems such as auto-subscribe bots, and fierce competition over belonging to the list (currently about 12-20 people fighting for the six spots). The project attempts to rethink the formal assumptions that define online communities and eventually to allow for these systems to be redesigned based on user-defined criteria.