Have we all lost interest in NG

The accepted rule is to wait until the item has ended before posting about it to avoid the situation Nick describes. I make the occasional exception when I see something off topic or so excesively priced that no one here will realisticaly bid on it. This way, any discusion is held after the sale. I don't see it reducing the group activity at all.

But unless my newsreader was playing tricks then posts *did* drop off - that would be a fact.

Julian.

Superficially it does seem perfectly reasonable. However did beneath the surface and it's pretty obviously merely a ploy by one or two selfish individuals with their own agendas to 'screw' people on e-bay and purchase stuff for a song.

What do we want, a buoyant lively NG with plenty of contributions and discussions, or one that's been strangled at the request of one or two with self centred motives? Take your pick - the SE fraternity are (on the whole) a pretty introverted group and need all the help they can get!

I only look in maybe about once a week, but I too have noticed a distinct lack of posts and newcomers. Let's face it, e-bay is a good topic starter.

Julian.

Being a sad sort, I looked up the number of posts on this group. I've ignored the first 14 months as the figures were understandably low.

As you can see, the next 3 years were quite consistent. The sudden surge in 2002 was when I joined. Purely coincidental I can assure you. The activity stayed high until last year when a couple of prolific posters left. This year's activity is incomplete but is on track to match last year. To reinforce my anorak qualifications, I've found the post proposing the ebay rule in Dec 2004. It may have been responsible for the dip in

John

Apologies all, my first post was actually mid 2003 so it=92s not me who caused the increase in posting.

John

Gentlemen,

This is a distinct case of "buggeralltodoitis", John does does have a tendancy to suffer from this affliction but you will all be pleased to know that it can't be caught by others.

Martin P

Gentlemen,

The condition gets worse as he now has the " mistakeitis" part of the illness as well :-))

Martin P

Sorry Martin, the fact that you replied means you've got it as well!

John

But this is an unmoderated group so any such 'rules' can only operate by consensus.

NHH

John,

A tad wrong, I am creating Browny points about the house and just happen to pass the computer on the odd occasion, this being one such moment on my way to make the bed. :-))

Sorry Martin, the fact that you replied means you've got it as well!

John

The lack of traffic may well be due to the fact that Demon's news server has been down for about 2 months. Demon were very popular with techie types who tend to use usenet . Many of the usual suspects in other groups are conspicuous by their absence for this reason.

Of course you are Martin.

John

In message , snipped-for-privacy@NOSPAM.netunix.com writes

I moved to Motzarella for my newsfeed when the Demon server became unreliable. It seems to work for me.

I still lurk here, but not often having anything apposite to contribute, I hold my peace.

Quite true.

However if my memory serves me then ISTR a fair amount of Julian.

There are other factors in play here.

Since the mid 2000's, a lot of engine-related forums have sprung up, in fact forums seem to have mushroomed over the last few years, to the point where there are possibly too many for the available audience.

The availability of heap domain registration, free software and hosting for £15 a year means that everyone and his dog is able to set up an engine (or other) forum, in most cases quite quickly as well.

Such dilution of available watchers/posters will have the effect shown by John's statistics, I don't think that the ebay matter would have had that much effect personally.

As I said before in this thread, you cannot spend all day looking at every forum/newsgroup, and I reduced both last year, concentrating on a reduced number, and as time goes by, they will probably get reduced again.

Peter

-- Peter A Forbes Prepair Ltd, Rushden, UK snipped-for-privacy@prepair.co.uk

For reference:-

Sadly the drift away from usenet seems inevitable. I've lurked on a few forums but not really taken to any - they seem over complicated with separate areas for discussing this that and the other and difficult to follow conversations, all of which takes more time or patience than I can muster to keep up with. Do you have any recommendations for a good UK based one?

NHH

"quote-ish"

It is an interesting moral dilemma. I like to spread good news about me and am naturally friendly and somewhat garrulous. However, I ask you this - if a person is actually bidding - or intending to bid - on an engine, will they post a "Look at this!!!" message about it on this NG? No, I thought not .........

Therefore I will do as I would like to be done by and will continue not to make comment on items on e-Bay until they are sold.

However, that will of course not stop me pointing out items of possible interest to friends off list. ;o))

Regards,

Kim Siddorn

The only posting rules are those outlined in the Charter, see:

Or if the link has warped:

Gentlemen,

If nothing else I have given our resident Stat man something to calculate with all these emails added and it gave you lot something to talk about as well so job done.

Martin P

p.s. By the way John I did make the bed and do a bit of house keeping, the wife is an invalid, remember. :-)) now you can feel guilty :-))