Creation of newsgroup uk.rec.lepidoptera

[Chris Raper]

On 30 Nov 1998 08:22:17 -0800, D.P.Howson at BRADFORD.AC.UK (D.P.Howson)
wrote:

>Well, I guess we all know pretty well by now what Chris and Neil are against. 

I am famous now? (or is that infamous! :-))

>But the fact remains that few people are involved from the UK, 

Err - I wouldn't say that :-\  AFAIK there are a quite a few UK users
of LEPS-L and some ex-pats who would like to be included in the
debates.

>and it could be that the new newsgroup would stimulate more to communicate.
>It is a little scary you know , to join an international club, where experts appear 
>ready to pounce and rubbish your contributions. 

True - but s.b.e.l is quite a friendly group - compared to others on
the net that I have contributed to. The only 'heated' debate I can
recall is the every re-occuring 'collecting' issue - but lets not
raise that now :-)

>Perhaps we should now turn to devising some positive ideas  to persuade 
>more people to take to this medium. In the UK could Butterfly Conservation, 
>for example, run a regular column in its News giving interesting snippets 
>from lep line? 

I think this is an excellent idea - encourage more people to use what
is already there.

>It is noticable that teachers, pupils and friends of pupils regularly join in 
>from the States. This does not seem to happen from UK- how can 
>we raise the profile in the schools? 

Perhaps UK schools are more likely to block direct Usenet access and
their staff are unaware of the email listsever? :-\  

Sorry to hark on about it but this raises another argument against the
new group as many potental new users originate in schools, which in
turn may prevent their pupils from accessing Usenet directly. s.b.e.l
may be the only point of access they have.

Best wishes,
Chris R.