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![]() "Peter Maus" wrote in message ... Eric F. Richards wrote: "Jim Douglas" wrote: Holy crap batman I only get 5-10 posts total daily, WTF, I am using COMCAST, anyone else using COMCAST and getting dribbles? "Telamon" wrote in message digy.com... My news server must be on the fritz only 8 posts for today? This is a 100 to 300 posts a day news group. -- Telamon Ventura, California I'm not seeing much traffic any more at this point, either. I figured the flamers (yes, I've done it, too) have driven the serious posters away. Sometimes the serious participants simply go into lurking mode. I've been with the group for about a decade, now, but have fallen into lurking mode, because much of what comes up is the same stuff that came up when I first joined the group. Lots of beginners' questions, and a good deal of rehash of common problems. Most of the gratuitous flamers have exited after becoming bored. Those that remain become more topical, less bellicose. So, it's not that the serious players have left, they're just waiting to participate in a discussion that they've not already been involved in. Peter, you should post more often. It's always good to see a voice from the past. There's also the fact that much of what shortwave was several years ago is now much different. With more major broadcasters removing themselves by degrees, or in total from HF in favor of Internet, podcasts, satellite radio, or any and all. And service by the majors to North America being all but abandoned. Though there's still a good deal of content, and some of it quite interesting, many of the staples have given way to US religious broadcasters which are of less interest to the serious DXers here, resulting in attrition from the bands, and from the newsgroup as well. As I've said in the past, it all depends on what the major broadcasters are trying to accomplish. If the idea is to broadcast primarily to expatriates, then you can use the more advanced forms of communication as the expatriates will be willing to look them up. If the idea is to broadcast views to the broadest possible audience, then SW should remain as part of the solution, as it reaches more people with less cost requirements than other solutions. World tensions and shifting political sands do create a need for SW in many regions of the world, but as David posted here recently, SW is not a primary, or even secondary medium for much of the world. This, too, results in changes, often sudden and dramatic, in usage of the bands, and subsequently the usage of this newsgroup. Hard truth is that SW was at one time, a significant medium for Europe. And for Europeans living abroad, it was often the only source of news from home. For many governments, SW was the most cost effective medium for widely distributing propaganda, news, culture and popular entertainment. Local media, as it was instituted quickly displaced SW in the public attention. Outside of European culture, SW has been a novelty for the rest of us. If that. This situation is not showing any signs of reversal. There are other factors, such as energy costs and governmental priorities, that drive decisions on SW broadcasting as well. If you look at SW broadcasting as far as ratings are concerned, you're probably going to be hard pressed to find any good consistent Nielsen rating-esque method of finding out listenership. It's easier to say, "XXX website has XXX hits", and be able to draw conclusions, or also perform the same service as the Nielsen Netratings, so there is data for policymaking. SW listenership is a bit more nebulous, so it's a bit harder to ascertain. That makes it also more difficult to defend when the people who make the decisions are used to a corporate-style cost benefit analysis. Meaning, in the end, this newsgroup will be comprised of enthusiasts, and hobbycraft participants. As newsgroup history has demonstrated over the last 10 years, not every SW enthusiast remains an enthusiast. Atrition will reduce the numbers as people entering the hobby anew will be, because there is little or no active widespread promotion of SW listening, fewer than those exiting. While flamers have no doubt run off some of the players here, and some of the serious players have gone into lurking mode, the changing nature of SW itself is responsible for the loss of regulars here. One other item to note is that the real world will often intrude. There was a period of several years where I didn't touch SW at all, because of the time factor. I'm also sure that later on in life, as the kids become more active with evening events like sports, scouts and whatnot, my free time for SW will decline again. Still later, when they are all teens, I'm sure that the free time will start to go back up, and my availability for SW listening with it. This is the same item that you see in the boardgame community: when the old Atari and Intellivision came out, there was a dropoff in boardgame usage. That dropoff has become heightened over the years as the video games replaced board games as the primary game of choice of kids. However, there is still a subset of people who still play boardgames, and there is a cottage industry of companies that have since sprung up to cater to that group that looks for things other than the latest Monopoly variant. --Mike L. |
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