[rdtsc]

I think email works better because people perceive it as a more direct message just to them. If say, you send an email and bcc people on it, they feel like they were sent a direct one-on-one personal message (even if they objectively know it is a newsletter). Status updates on Twitter, Facebook, etc, when it was obvious that they are for multiple people not just a one-to-one message don't produce the same effect. People don't feel like they have to respond because someone else can respond instead.

[TeMPOraL]

I think the difference is subtle, but a little different. Status updates on Twitter, Facebook, etc. feel like a part of the service - something that exists on Facebook. By checking your timeline you're only looking at events that exist elsewhere. On the other hand, receiving a mail feels like it came to you. It does not exist as an entity somewhere in the world, it's a message that came to your inbox (and possibly to others in the CC/BCC field).

It's sort of like receiving a letter vs. reading something on a pubic notice board. The former is yours, the latter is in public space.

[tmail21]

I think you hit the nail on the head. An email is yours in the sense that once sent to you, the sender cannot 'take it away' or 'modify it' or 'delete it'.

This is different than many other 'communication protocols' out there such as Facebook Posts, Twitter Posts, Slack comments, Shared Docs etc. which all have the notion of an 'owner' who can retract permissions, modify, delete etc. after 'send'. The email analogy would be the sender reaching into your inbox and deleting or modifying your email (ugh!). This is fundamentally what gives email the feel that there is no favored owner. Conversely, every recipient can feel that the email is theirs.

We're launching an email-like service, (https://tmail21.com) in the next couple of weeks. Our premise is to preserve the best aspects of email while fixing or improving on the worst.

We think one of the best aspects of email is the aforementioned 'democratic' (i.e. no favored owner) characteristic.

[digi_owl]

Reminds me that at one point Heinlein requested that any letter etc he had sent people were to be returned, so he could burn them...

[tmail21]

Obviously Heinlein had not encountered Facebook where no random thought is too minor to be broadcast to all your 'friends' :)

[fallat]

I'm thinking of setting up "gateways", like bitlbee, so I can do:

To: facebook#post#friends@localhost

Subject:

Body:

Hey this is a post to Facebook, from email!

[rdtsc]

Exactly. I think you put it better into words than me.

[TeMPOraL]

It's a subtle feeling. I spent like 10 minutes rewriting my comment because it was hard to express it precisely.

[joe_the_user]

Once a newsletter reaches a certain size, it feel less personal than even a Facebook post. But with a small circulation, sure.