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In lugnet.loc.uk, carbon60@bigfoot.com (Carbon 60) writes:
> Todd Lehman wrote:
> > > 2) I don't want newbies going to local groups seeing that no-one posts
> > > there and therefore thinking that there is no UK LEGO Community and not
> > > using the local groups.
> >
> > Then we should talk about how to solve this problem.
>
> Acknowledged. I'll work out a plan (like Richard is) and see how it
> fits together then do a vote or something so everyone is more or less
> happy.
I think Richard may have been suggesting the removal of certain groups,
which is an extremely drastic measure and only a last resort if all else
fails.
What newcomers really need the most help with is:
- Learning about the existence of the main UK group, so that they can use
it for UK discussions of a general nature, and
- Finding the local group or groups nearest to them, so that they can use
these for UK discussions of a local nature, and
- Learning to crosspost between groups (as appropriate) -- whether that's
among a couple local groups near them or among their local group and the
main group, and
- Learning to subscribe via e-mail to low-traffic groups, so that if they
only want to read the main UK group regularly, they can still follow
discussions in the local smaller groups if they're afraid of missing
anything.
> > People can post wherever they feel is the most appropriate place to
> > post. Sometimes the England group is going to be more appropriate
> > than the all-of-UK group -- not always, of course, but sometimes.
> > Same with Scotland or Northern Ireland, for example, or a smaller place.
>
> I can understand Northern Ireland being seperate because it is only
> linked by boat and plane and so getting a LEGO set from there is more
> difficult.
It has nothing to do with geography and everything to do with sociology and
politics.
> People may think it is more appropiate to post to a tiny
> group but if they don't get a reply it'll be a waste when someone 5
> miles away lives in a different group zone could have helped them.
I think people should be encouraged to crosspost whenever/wherever it is
appopriate to do so.
> [...]
> Well subscribing to all the UK groups via e-mail really defeats having
> separate groups (if everyone did it).
I don't think it does. All you do is subscribe via e-mail to the groups
that you don't subscribe to via NNTP. Those come then as digests or however
you like them, and they're clearly marked what group they're from. You can
tune out ones you find noisy (if any) and adjust the digest settings to
suit the individual groups. It works quite well in practice. The most
important thing is that local information gets archived in its local area
(even if it's still crossposted to the main group).
> > No one should be "told" to post exclusively to the main UK group.
> > At most, people should be simply *made aware* that if they don't post
> > to the main group, their message may not be read by most people. It's
> > their individual decision and choice.
>
> Well people are told not to post HTML to USENET but it still happens -
> some people can't read their messages because their newsreader isn't
> capable. You can never really tell people to do anything but people in
> the UK are good people and can take good advice when given the simple
> reasoning behind it.
Let me rephrase my statement then: No one should be advised to post
*exclusively* to the main UK group.
People should be simply made aware of its existence, and made aware that
most UK people have decided to post there, and that if they don't post to
the main group, then their message may not be read by most UK people. But
where to post must still remain their individual decision and choice, and
over the long haul it will vary based on the content and character of the
messages.
The best thing, of course, is to encourage/advise people to crosspost to the
main group and to their local group if they have some information to share
which contains any sort of geographic references. It's rather unfortunate
when someone posts only to the main group about a new store they found in
their area without crossposting the information to their local group.
> > I agree that we should try to figure out a way to educate people that
> > the .loc.uk group is where most people have voluntarily chosen to
> > congregate and that they too may wish to congregate there.
>
> There lies the challenge.
It's not that difficult, though. We just need to figure out how/why people
have missed it, and correct for those. Perhaps an automated message (posted
by the news server itself) going into all of the tiny local groups would
work if it sufficiently outlined the background of the problem and made it
clear to people that they were not being discouraged from using the little
local groups.
> [...]
> > It doesn't have to be one single solution either -- it could be a
> > combination of things, for example
> >
> > - something for the FAQ
>
> Unfortunately people don't read FAQs much - even if they are told to.
But some people do. That's the point.
> > - something on the webpages
>
> It could help via the web interface but not elsewhere.
And a lot of people (about 1/3) use the web interface.
> > - something that gets mailed to the poster the first time they post
> > etc.
>
> This could work if the post was very small and so not ignored.
To be sure, none of these three possibilities would to solve the problem all
by itself. That's why 3 or 4 things in tandem are probably needed to solve
it 99% of the way.
--Todd
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: All UK Groups subscribed?
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| (...) I may have missed this already but: Couldn't the "locations" page be redesigned to show groups and subgroups in an outline format that would better define main and subgroups like subdirectories in DOS or Explorer. UK - London - Lancaster USA - (...) (25 years ago, 17-May-99, to lugnet.loc.uk, lugnet.admin.general)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: All UK Groups subscribed?
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| (...) Acknowledged. I'll work out a plan (like Richard is) and see how it fits together then do a vote or something so everyone is more or less happy. (...) I can understand Northern Ireland being seperate because it is only linked by boat and plane (...) (25 years ago, 16-May-99, to lugnet.loc.uk, lugnet.admin.general)
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