Pat writ:

G'day All...

Why should I use this NewsGroup, or the General Discussion
Gallery, or both?

Have a good day...


Well,

1. There are twice as many people reading the news group/mailing
list than read/use the gallery; 4 times as many who USE it, since
most of the users on the gallery pages are "visitors" who can't
post.

2. The folks who DO use the General Discussion" area of the
gallery are (GENERALLY speaking) much less experienced than those
who read and use the mailing list and gallery. There are some
very experienced and well known users of the pictorial parts of
the gallery pages, but most of them do not deign to use the
general discussion area. Or, if they read it, they don't answer
questions. (Go back as far as you like and see who it is that
DOES respond; not many different folks there.) Most (many) of
the answers I've seen on the web-based discussion are from
beginners who have read a couple of books and are at the stage we
all went though where we know we know it ALL.

3. The discussions on the newsgroup/mailing list often are
conducted in much more depth (and by more people). Some of the
recent threads (over this weekend when I was gone, there were
several nice topics).

4. The World Wide Web is the absolutely most clumsy means of
having a discussion that I can think of. It is GREAT for posting
a picture, then discussing it, posting virtuals, etc. (and as a
site for ego massaging as are many of the pics on the gallery).

5. Besides, and this should be the most important reason, you
may not want to choose just one of the two options, because you
want the *absolute most number of opinions and views as you
possibly can get.*

I'm sure that this will change over time, especially if the
clumsiness of web-based discussion can be overcome.

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Posting from
the news group because I'm getting "unknown user" errors from the
list address