On 2013-11-06 21:14:26 +0000, Jake said:

On Wed, 6 Nov 2013 17:50:07 +0000, Sacha
wrote:

I'm concerned for the future of this group

I've pruned the rest as you can read it in the original post and my
reply's long enough on its own

The truth is often unpalatable. Usenet is changing. URG is dying.
There is no new blood coming in to replace those who move on. In its
death throes, URG has changed from a gardening group to a less
focused, and predominantly male, social gathering.

Sacha refers to the reduction in posts. I archive the group each
month; I used to do it more frequently. The simple volume of posts per
month, measured by file size, has decreased by about 65% in the last
year. I also notice the all too plain disappearance of former regulars
and the less frequent posts of others.

Mention the weather and we're on (again) about how reliable any
forecast isn't. Spuds won't cook properly because of some nuance in
Internet Explorer which means the Firefox won't burn properly and so
the non-Chrome pan won't warm up during the Opera interval. We
exchange witticisms, thoughts about life, the world etc., with some
loose connection to gardening that often ends with the fourth post in
a thread. And at some point in a long thread someone won't like
someone else and we have a public exchange of "views".

We have the occasional bit of interest with the "guess the plant"
posts, unless incursion of advertisements which pay for the free photo
hosting sites diverts the discussion (again).

Then some innocent arrives from GardenBanter, survives the inevitable
discussion about what WE are (does Crowe still interject to say what a
bunch of nasties we are and that he's off on another cruise soon?),
might get an answer to a question and then disappears into a hole in
the rhubarb patch forever.

Then there are those who come other than through GardenBanter. The
difference is that they don't disappear permanently once their
question is answered; they drink wine on the patio for a few months
while thinking up a new question and return here. But much else is
simply repetitive.

Twitter is the only social media entity that I bother with but that
can, if used carefully, be productive. I would be lying if I said that
I do not find Twitter discussions about gardening issues far more
focused, interesting and productive than those in URG. I've never met
an URGler but have met quite a few people via Twitter; some I now meet
with regularly in both a gardening context and at more general social
events.

And there ARE good gardening blogs/web sites. Start with somewhere
like http://www.thinkingardens.co.uk where the discussion,
surprisingly about gardening topics, is active and interesting. Though
probably you won't like the layout or something.

But after many happy years of Usenet, URG is now the only group I
follow. And I too will ask myself the question "Is it worth it?" when
my annual Usenet provider account is due for renewal. The honest
answer is "Probably not."

Applause and a sad endorsement.
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk