| |
In lugnet.loc.uk, simon.robinson1@tesco.net (Simon Robinson) writes:
> I can't recall if I actually noticed the lugnet.loc.uk link at the
> top of the list, but if I did I probably assumed it was some general
> explanation or something, not an actual newsgroup - after all,
> once you've seen a range of local groups that cover the UK - why on
> Earth should there be other groups that cover the same areas again?
> The thought that there would be simply never crossed my mind.
Well, the main UK group doesn't actually cover the same areas as the smaller
groups -- it does geographically, to some extent -- but not topically.
That is to say, the smaller groups are for super-localised discussions
(where something is so esoteric that it wouldn't belong in the main group).
And the main group is for broad country- or kingdom-wide discussions.
If no one feels comfortable talking in smaller groups (for example, what
time to meet at a local pub on some Tuesday night), then the local groups
are rarely needed. They small groups are incredibly great, though, for
posting notes about findings at toystores, etc. which people can find weeks
or months later when they stumble into the group (someone would never find
such a message month later in a large, high-traffic, general group).
> > What if the first thing you see is this...
> >
> > http://www.lugnet.com/loc/uk/
>
> That would help a fair bit. What would make the page even more useful
> would be if the big space on the left was used to display a bit of text
> explaining what the links are and what the structure of the groups is.
By "what the links are" do you mean what the links lead to, i.e. sub-
categories of the current category being viewed?
By "what the structure of the group is" do you mean the interrelation of the
group and its subgroups?
> Also there's lots of numbers by the names at the top of the screen with
> no explanation of what the numbers mean (or of what the links are links
> to) [1]
Hmm, but what the numbers actually mean isn't as important as their relative
proportions, right? Or does one still actually wonder what they mean?
> [...]
> btw the statistics you added to your message were interesting.
> Is it possible that in some cases pure chance is a factor in which
> groups have grown - that whichever groups got posted to first then
> attracted everyone else? I recall from the recent discussion in lugnet.loc.uk
> that it emerged quite a few people who read it are not in the UK - so
> the group 'membership' doesn't seem to be exclusively based on geographical
> area.
That could very well be. The itty bitty local groups are being used
correctly in the U.S. but people aren't using them correctly in the U.K. and
I don't understand why. It's probably because there are still so few LEGO
fans online in the UK and they don't want to feel isolated in their own
empty local groups, so they post to the top-level UK group. But they
problem is that in doing so, they're forgetting to cross-post to their
little local group, and this make the main group grow out of proportion to
the other groups.
--Todd
|
|
Message has 1 Reply:
Message is in Reply To:
51 Messages in This Thread:
  
 
- Entire Thread on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
This Message and its Replies on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
|
|
|
|
