Re: Wilderness Wales Weblog Launched

On 22 May, 08:16, Roger <r...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


The group needs a certain critical mass and in the recent past ISTM we
have slipped well below it.

I don't think we should despair too much. I still find the group
useful, both to read and when I get responses to my (occasional)
posts.

It has been assumed in the past that we have a large body of lurkers who
are too timid to actually post.

I expect that this is true. There is, I suspect (based on no actual
evidence :-) a tendency to see newsgroups as a source of information
rather than a place to interact.

Where is everyone going?

I don't think people are being lured away to places like Second Life.
They didn't come here out of boredom, they come here because of an
interest in walking. I think some of the problem may be that with the
(welcome) explosion in websites about walking, and the ability of
Google etc to track down useful information, the average walker will
find what he needs quickly and won't turn to a newsgroup.

Casual browsers and lurkers will also be put off by spam postings,
which make it difficult to sort out the good threads, and by some of
the rather bitter and personal attacks and rows that sometimes inhabit
UKRW (and many other newsgroups). These don't bother me as a regular
reader, as I can spot the culprits these days and skip past their
threads. In fact I support the facility offered by newsgroups like
this for people to air their extreme views; they generally get a
robust response! But to the casual reader they can be off-putting and
tar the rest of the posts with the same brush.

All in all I don't think we should be too downhearted. This group is
active and provides a good and interesting read to those who use it.
If it is replaced by other things in the course of time, well that's
life, and we should celebrate the fact that there are good sources of
information and debate coming into being to replace it.

But we aren't there yet!


Jell

.

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