Mike Lyle wrote:
BoyPete wrote:
Mike Lyle wrote:
[...]
My theory about rec.ponds, if that's the wrecked group you meant, was
that its user base was too small to swamp the trolls, and that was
because it was too specialised.

I would disagree with 'specialised' I have a garden with a pond, I'm not a
Koi person who spends thousands of pounds on their setup. It is for people
like me, and I susoect several others here, that I want this forum created.
[...]

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I didn't mean "for specialists", but simply "too
narrow in focus". I don't know how many UK gardeners who use newsgroups
also have ponds, but I'd guess that it was too small a number to
sustain a newsgroup. I don't know what the "critical mass" for a group
is, but an example which comes to mind is Iceland. I've recently
visited, and adored it; I also have interests in the language issues,
environmental questions, and wildlife; and as soon as I got home I
searched for newsgroups on Iceland. Nothing worth a moment's mousing.
That must simply be a question of numbers: Iceland has a pop. of about
280 thousand, and I suppose the real foreign devotees like me probably
number a few thousand at most. So a population of, let's guess, 300
thousand may not be enough to support an intelligent newsgroup. I know
my stats are highly suspect: there will be good ones in Icelandic, of
course; but they'll probably be based around the university or special
interest groups. How many UK gardeners are there? And how many of them
have even _heard_ of newsgroups, let alone want to join in? Divide that
by pond-owners, and you see where I'm going.

The main reason why you do not find any Icelanders writing in
newsgroups is not a lack of online Icelanders, Icelanders are
per-capita among the biggest net users in the world, it is because
newsgroups is not used by Icelanders in general any more, nowadays
everyone (almost) have their own blog site and if anyone wants to air
his views of gardening he does so on the blog.

wrote:
Mike Lyle wrote:
BoyPete wrote:
Mike Lyle wrote:
snip
The main reason why you do not find any Icelanders writing in
newsgroups is not a lack of online Icelanders, Icelanders are
per-capita among the biggest net users in the world, it is because
newsgroups is not used by Icelanders in general any more, nowadays
everyone (almost) have their own blog site and if anyone wants to air
his views of gardening he does so on the blog.

So, they all talk about themselves, with no interaction? Isn't that a bit
sad?
Are you an Icelander Sigvald?
--
ßôyþëtë

BoyPete wrote:
wrote:
Mike Lyle wrote:
BoyPete wrote:
Mike Lyle wrote:
snip
The main reason why you do not find any Icelanders writing in
newsgroups is not a lack of online Icelanders, Icelanders are
per-capita among the biggest net users in the world, it is because
newsgroups is not used by Icelanders in general any more, nowadays
everyone (almost) have their own blog site and if anyone wants to air
his views of gardening he does so on the blog.

So, they all talk about themselves, with no interaction? Isn't that a bit
sad?

You can reply to what has been written on a blog site, there is just as
much interaction as in a newsgroup, nothing sad about that.
People talk about what suits them, if their interest is gardening,
they'll talk about gardening etc.

Are you an Icelander Sigvald?

Yea.

writes

snip
The main reason why you do not find any Icelanders writing in
newsgroups is not a lack of online Icelanders, Icelanders are
per-capita among the biggest net users in the world, it is because
newsgroups is not used by Icelanders in general any more, nowadays
everyone (almost) have their own blog site and if anyone wants to air
his views of gardening he does so on the blog.

So, they all talk about themselves, with no interaction? Isn't that a bit
sad?

You can reply to what has been written on a blog site, there is just as
much interaction as in a newsgroup, nothing sad about that.
People talk about what suits them, if their interest is gardening,
they'll talk about gardening etc.

From what I've seen of blogs that would work really well for the
'discussion' part of urg. What I can't see working so well is the way
people come to urg seeking advice - it's easy to join in discussion on a
blog, not so easy to dive in with a question on a completely new topic.
Or am I wrong?
--
Kay

On Thu, 11 Jan 2007 20:17:53 -0000, "BoyPete"
wrote:

Hello Some months ago, someone by the name of Tim Hills set up a forum
for pondkeepers. Unfortunately, for reasons not know, the forum disappeared.
I only have a small garden, and planting is now mainly pot based, plus a
pond. I know many keen gardeners also have ponds. Being in need of a pond
group, all I found was a group full of trolls. I have a friend who runs a
forum with several boards covering different interests. (
http://www.karlsforums.com/forums/ ) If I can find enough support, he is
prepared to initiate a pond forum. It is intended to be mainly for 'back
garden ponders' rather than more specialised/expensive set-ups. If anyone
here is interested, the link below will take you to my thread in KF
requesting the forum. You may if you like, join KF's and post a support
message.
http://www.karlsforums.com/forums/fo...lay.php?fid=23
Thank you for your time and bandwidth.

It's a stupid idea. The only people who would find it attractive are
trolls, control freaks and weird fruits.

Grow some balls. Stick around here, we take anybody!