Joanna,

Newsgroups participation could easily be argued to be down because every
question about a topic (especially orchids) can be answered instantaneously
now by just Googling the question... no one has to wait 24 hours anymore for
a response from someone in the newsgroup. Even emailing overall on the net
is declining... everyone prefers IM-ing now. We all want instant feedback
and RGO (among many other newsgroups) is becoming an information dinosaur.
It's evolution.

Mick