"martin" wrote in message
news
On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 11:21:22 +0100, "BAC"
wrote:


"martin" wrote in message
.. .
On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 01:10:52 +0100, "Sue"
wrote:


"Janet Baraclough" wrote
solaara
I thought this was garden banter

I think we've told you this before, it's not gardenbanter. This is a
newsgroup which existed long before that lamebrains website and is
completely independent of it.

It's much harder to make sense of branching threads on a web-based
bulletin
board layout, plus they always seem so slow and clunky. I can never
see
why
anyone wants to use them if they can read and post to the same group
via
newsreader software.

Most people are ignorant of the existence of news groups.

How do you know that?

How many people post to this newsgroup out of the hundreds of
thousands of UK gardeners with Internet access.

You seem to be presupposing that anyone with internet access who is aware of
the existence of newsgroups will post to them, but i'm not sure that is
correct. I know there are people who read newsgroups but don't post to them,
and other people who are well aware of the existence of newsgroups but
seldom if ever use them - either because they don't find them very
interesting or are scared of their addresses being harvested, or perhaps
couldn't be bothered to find some which interest them, or are scared off by
'netiquette' stuff, or they find the content offensive, or whatever.

Why are garden banter
posters confused when they are told that they are using a newsgroup?

Perhaps some garden banter users are unaware of the existence of newsgroups,
before it is explained to them. Perhaps some of them prefer to use garden
banter, for some unknown reason.


Newsgroups wouldn't work if all those who could use them did use them.

Perhaps not, but again it doesn't necessarily follow that everybody who
doesn't use a service is unaware that such services exist. For example,
there are many people who seldom if ever use buses (or churches, or ladies
of the night) but I expect they realise that such exist.


Did you ever notice how few people vote in UK usenet committee
elections?

No, but then I'm surprised anybody votes in UK usenet committee elections
:-)