> I'm not buying it. There is ample mention of these lists on the
> WWW. Serious
> browsing of the web looking for britcar info will find these mentions.
IMO the majority of today's internet users are simply not capable or willing
to do "serious browsing". The web is a huge and somewhat bewildering place
to them, and random poking into dark corners frequently turns up kiddie porn
and other such distasteful, possibly illegal things. Prowling into things
like mail lists and USENET, that aren't heard of on every street corner,
just doesn't occur to them. I talk to people all the time who don't know
what a search engine is.
Probably 80% of our local club members have access to the Internet (although
some only from work), I'd guess less than 10% of those are on any of the
Team.Net lists. And fully half of those on the lists almost never make any
posts (Hi Jan).
There's also a fair number of people unwilling or unable to deal with the
volume of messages. For someone who checks their email once a week at best
(if they aren't doing anything else that weekend), having 2 or 3 hundred
posts pile up can be much more of a headache than it's worth.
The problem is complicated too by the somewhat arcane list interface. Mind,
I'm not suggesting it be changed, I like it as is, but it's difficult to
tell someone in a 5 minute conversation how to find and get on the list, in
a form they can remember or jot down easily. Just putting their email
client ("What's an email client ?") into plain text mode ("What's that ?")
can be a sizeable challenge for someone who bought a computer "because
everyone said I needed one".
As fast as personal computers have progressed, they're still at about the
stage cars were in the 1920's. There are cheap models available, but they
still take a fair amount of special knowledge (not taught when most people
were in school) to run. The hand cranking days are over, but you still have
to prime the carbs and pull the choke and step on the clutch and push the
button and ... oh, by the way you'd better install all these things that
didn't come with your computer or it will get this mysterious disease ...
The Internet is even worse. I like to compare it to the American "Wild
West" in the late 1800's ... most people are peaceful and law-abiding
citizens. Lots more are honorable, just don't recognize the law as such,
and then there are all sorts of criminals (hackers) roaming about ...
Not criticizing anyone, just my tuppence worth.
Randall
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