From: ron.parker@uttsbbs.uucp (Ron Parker) 
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.textiles
Subject: do we want a "welcome to
Date: 11 Oct 92 13:39:00 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: The Transfer Station BBS, Danville, CA - 510-837-4610/837-5591
Reply-To: ron.parker@uttsbbs.uucp (Ron Parker) 

   on 4 Oct 1992 pmmuggli@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu  (pauline muggli) wrote:    
  
PM .   lcasey@koko.csustan.edu (Linda Casey) writes:   
PM .
PM . >Is there another newsgroup for crocheting and knitting?  I haven't seen
PM . >these subjects in rec.crafts and I don't seem to get much response to the
PM . >patterns I have been posting.  Am I in the wrong spot?

PM . i think there are lurkers out there who read the group for a
PM . little while or are new to the group, and don't see a topic
PM . they're interested in, and leave.

A couple of points.....with the last first

No doubt there are many lurkers.  Fibernet BBS is even making the problem
worse -- at least on a short term basis.  We have many users who have no
gateway to Internet.  Because of that I have been echoing both the
alt.sewing and rec.crafts.textiles newsgroups on Fibernet.  I put each
week's messages on as a bulletin that can be either read on line or
downloaded as a compressed packet.  I also accumulate the weekly messages
into compressed monthly files that can be downloaded.  My users have no
way to participate -- they are lurkers by definition.  I am working on
getting them into the input role in the future, but it will take some
work.

Next point is those who read, see little or nothing of interest, and quit
lurking.  It is of course the old Pogo rule that the enemy is us.  If a
textile or fiber craftsperson or artist doesn't see anything of interest,
it is up to them to start it up.  Of course they don't know this, and
often lack the patience to keep posting messages until they begin to stir
up some action.

I think that both rec.crafts.textiles and Fibernet need to figure out
some way to encourage people to send out trial balloons - repeatedly.
Interest groups will never arise out of thin air; they need people.  With
Fibernet I have found that spinners and knitters seem to be the most
'participating' of the fiber world.  Sewers almost never come back, and
weavers hardly ever come on at all.  We currently have a plethora of
knitters coming on as new users because of a letter to the editor in
Knitter's magazine.  The problem for all of us is PR.  Fibernet has
gotten lots of cooperation from SpinOff and Knitter's magazines so we
have lots of users in those specialties.  The weaver's magazines have
been fairly refractory, and the weavers themselves even more so.  As with
everything it is hard to get the 'word out'.

I will mention the existence of rec.crafts.textiles in any future press
releases that I send out about Fibernet.  Maybe that will attract a few
more people to here -- but, of course, they have to have access, and that
is not easy for someone outside the Internet system.

ron.parker%uttsbbs%boo@pacbell.com (Ron Parker)
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 . JABBER v1.1 #21 . Fibernet BBS, Henning, MN 218-583-4337
                                                                                                                                       
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.textiles