RE: MUG Online Chats?
RE: MUG Online Chats?
- Subject: RE: MUG Online Chats?
- From: MUG NEWS <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 16 Oct 2004 10:11:48 -0400
Greetings all...
Jim Foster wrote:
> I am curious to hear the opinions of other MUG leaders relative
> to what I perceive to be a rather low participation rate in the
> two monthly MUG-targeted Online Chats
I believe Jim answers his own questions.
For nearly 700 consecutive Sunday nights we administrated the
'User Group Forum Chats' in America Online's UGF.
These were very popular and nearly each week we overflowed the 'room'
and had to open second chat rooms to allow for the crowd.
In late 1994 the attendance began to fall off. In 1995, AOL eliminated
the UGF (along with all their other "community" forums) and we moved
to the internet with a new chat facility very similar to AOL's.
At that point, each week's attendance was lower and lower until
no one was coming. In '96, it was discontinued and the
chat site closed.
I think Jim makes the points, as do the others who have added their
comments...
> * folks find online text chats frustrating
> * online text chats can be confusing because of streams
> * the TIMING of the sessions is not suitable (Time Zones)
> * value vs. time invested
> * users are unaware that the chats are occurring
> * People are just too BUSY with other stuff!
All, certainly good reasons -- but "too busy" probably the
most prevalent reason for not attending.
I'll add another:
Supply & Demand: the demand no longer exists.
The user group community has seen a rather dramatic societal
change take place since the popularization of the internet.
A large percentage of people who 'would have' been or were
active in the community found the benefits of user group
membership replaced by the internet. They now turn to
specialized web sites that focus specifically on their areas
of need, or commercial web sites for companys who now deal
direct with the consumer via the web. (Apple and Adobe as
prime examples.) They no longer need to 'chat' about it.
For many of the user group members and officers who attended
those chats in the early years of telecommunications, chat
night represented their only contact with the UG community
and the greater computer world at large.
The internet changed all that.
Why did they join a user group or chat in the first place?
? News? It's delivered when it happens from thousands of sites
? Software help? The manufacturers now go direct to consumers
? Shareware? Thousands and thousands of download sites
? Upgrades? Automated update announcements, click to upgrade
? Camaraderie? Hundreds of tightly targeted (SIG) interest sites
? Learning? Over saturation of millions of online tutorials
? Social? No time, no priority
People also move on after a while. The generation replacing
those early adopters of the UG Community ideals are of a
completely different cloth. Being part of, and participating in
a "computer club" holds no promise for them because they've
been born into a world that is already 'connected.' In fact,
if user group members and participants did their homework, and
followed through with many of the UG community ideals, then
they were, in fact, nurturing and teaching that new generation
not to have need or interest in being part of a UG community.
This is not conjecture. This phenomena is being experienced in
many, if not all, corners of the "organization" world. School
PTAs are the perfect example. When the kids graduate, the
parents are gone. Supply and demand. Luckily kids are still
being born -- so to some extent those exiting parents are
being replaced by new ones. But only because of their very
specific reason: their kids. And, those too are dwindling.
Beyond social, or "affiliation" benefits of being a member,
people really no longer have a need to be part of a user group.
"WE" (meaning those on this list) continue to participate
only because we're rooted in it. Eventually, we'll be replaced,
or not.
So as the user group landscape changes, the UG model must change
as well -- less be faced with extinction.
:-) ... IMHO
Fred
Fred Showker, Editor in Chief, MUG Infomanager
MUG InfoManager is sent each Monday morning - Since 1994
http://www.user-groups.net/info/
User Group Network News Service (UGNN)
http://www.user-groups.net/
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