RE: Re: Off Topic Posts (Again)

["Mark Harrison" <Mark.Harrison@xxxxxxx>]

I don't know whether I'm "respected", but I am long-serving, and
I did
call Mark McCall earlier today, so maybe I'm the one to whom he was
alluding ;-)

I joined this list because I was interested in Home Automation. When I
joined, in early 1998, that was what we talked about. When we moved to
egroups (now Yahoo!), we averaged 2-3 messages per day.

In 1999, we started seeing messages on Home Networking as well. Now, the
"market segment" of people interested in Home Automation is
probably a
very similar match to those interested in Home Networking, so, despite a
flurry of messages over several months ago keeping on topic or not, we
ended up agreeing that Home Networking was "OK". By the end of
1999, we
were averaging 4 messages per day.

In 2000, we started growing rapidly, and the topics broadened. It became
obvious that "The World of Home Automation" included lots of
interfacing
with A/V kit, and the messages started to wander into "other" A/V
areas
>from
the pluses and minues of various ISPs. Again, there was some rumbling
about whether this was "on-topic", but overall, it was agreed
that it
was OK. By the end of 2000, we were averaging 20-30 messages per day.

In 2001, we have exploded. We are now averaging 80-100 messages per day
- more messages have been posted TODAY than in the whole of October
1998. The topics have expanded in another two areas:

1: There is now far more regular face-to-face contact between us all. A
couple of "major meets" a year, "London drinks meets"
most months, and
"visits" every few weeks. These get written up, and generally
start with
posting about the HA content of the meets. They do, however, have a
tendancy to follow with a chain of "social ramble" messages.

2: There are far more general "PC support" messages. Some of
these are
about HA requirements of PCs, but some are like - (and I pick this as an
example because it's still fresh in our minds, not because the
contributor was an offender against what has now emerged as the "Group
Norm") - the question about Windows XP drivers for a UMAX Scanner. I
cannot see ANY relevance to HA in these. The problem is - we have a
large number of friendly, generous, and knowledgable people on the
group, and this is actually quite a good forum to get the answer to this
kind of question quickly!

I've asked the question before - but we have to work out what we are:

- Are we a group of friends, who have a common interest in HA, but want
to build a community able to talk about anything whether it's related to
HA or not?

OR

- Are we trying to build a forum that will be a useful resource for
those coming into a new, exciting, technology area, but who want to use
this as a place to learn about the various technologies, not wander into
a general "Village Meeting" of people who happen to use these
technologies?

Mark Harrison
Head of Systems, eKingfisher

-----Original Message-----
From: Andy Powell [mailto:ukha@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 31 October 2001 14:28
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: [ukha_d] Re: Off Topic Posts (Again)


--- In ukha_d@y..., "Mark McCall" <mark@a...> wrote:
> It's also other long termers too though.
>
> I had a phone call from another long-serving and respected member
of the list just a few minutes ago, as well as some private emails
and IMs.  These people don't want to be seen to be "spoiling the
fun"
but they are annoyed.
>
> Thanks
>
> M.
>
Mark,

I'm desparately trying to keep quiet but I can't. The fact is it's no
good if they don't post their objections, in fact it's pointless. If
we end up agreeing in the actual postings that there is/is not a
problem because we've heard from everyone concerned then it can be
considered a fair discussion. If people are annoyed then they should
voice their annoyance to *everyone*. If people do not voice their
opinions then they only have themselves to blame.

I fear *I'm* getting far to annoyed now...

IMHO, again... and that's the last from me on the subject!

Andy





For more information: http://www.automatedhome.co.uk
Post message: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subscribe:  ukha_d-subscribe@xxxxxxx
Unsubscribe:  ukha_d-unsubscribe@xxxxxxx
List owner:  ukha_d-owner@xxxxxxx

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/



_____________________________________________________________________
This message has been checked for all known viruses by the
MessageLabs Virus Scanning Service. For further information visit
http://www.messagelabs.com/stats.asp