2nd RFD for uk.rec.lepidoptera

[Peter Parry]

On Tue, 01 Dec 1998 13:46:14 GMT, triocomp at dial.pipex.com (Chris
Raper) wrote:


>For many people the nature of
>the hobby/profession is in making observations and exchanging
>information between interested parties.

I wasn't commenting on this or other parts of your argument as they
is outside my experience, just the difficulty of usenet access and
why it appears to be so specific here yet not elsewhere.

>Mmm - don't know - I can't really comment but maybe there were plenty
>of other methods of communication or the other groups were of a larger
>subscription and therefore needed sub-dividing? :-\

Not really, many were no bigger than one might expect this group to
be.

>>Even though direct newsgroup access may be restricted indirect via
>>the likes of Deja News on the WWW should be possible.
>
>Good point - but I bet the sys admins that block Usenet also block web
>access too :-)  

Are there that many people who only have Internet e-mail access and
nothing else?  It seems unlikely.

>Then there is the ease of use argument - currently the
>list server is very easy to use - if the situation were more
>complicated to use it would certainly discourage use.

Acting a bit as Devils advocate the converse of that is that
newsgroups are much easier to find than mailing lists for the
newcomer.

>>Can anyone quantify the scale of this problem?
>
>Sorry - don't know the figures I'm afraid :-(

I think if this aspect of your argument is to stand up it could do
with some facts to support it.

-- 
Peter Parry.   01442 212597   0973 269132  fax 01442 233169
http://www.wppltd.demon.co.uk