This reply is to both previous emails... On Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 1:30 PM, Dilwyn Jones <[email protected]>wrote:
> One thing I think would help Quanta is to acknowledge that the internet is >>> a >>> primary form of communication - I know this seems obvious and they could >>> say >>> "we're doing it" but, c'mon, really? :) Where's the Quanta forum? Where >>> are >>> the public areas and the members only areas within it? >>> >>> >> Just one thing to comment on this. The survey that Quanta did some years >> ago showed that there were still many members who are "black box users" and >> had no desire for becoming internet users. When you consider that Quanta >> does have members in their 80's who are happy with the QL and at their age >> have no desire to learn another computer this is reasonable. >> > I would agree to some extent with this. We have to recognise that there are > both users out there as you describe, using original QLs and no wish to go > much further, and we have to cater for those who progressed to newer QL > systems and emulators too. > Understood. However, there is a point when the reticence to do new things means you end up serving LCD... If you only serve the lowest common denominator, you orphan your users as the LCDs age out. I will be a black box user when my membrane arrives. I use an emulator for code-diddling (thanks Daniele!) and would probably be a QPC owner if I used Windows. Mixed bag. However, I'd never expect an organisation of which I was a member to limit what they offered to just suit my needs, as long as they never replaced those services that met my needs with twinkly services that don't. > The real issue, I guess, is to try to strike a suitable balance. I suppose > it's inevitable we'll never satisfy everyone. > > In as far as Dave asks where is the Quanta Forum etc etc, I think we have > to recognise that the website has not been Quanta's strongest asset for some > time now. Recent committee decisions should (theoretically) see more > progress on this front. Once the basics are in place - getting the CMS to > work as we want it - we can then turn our attention to new features. While > ideas are always welcome, given that past Quanta websites haven't done too > well, let's get the fundamentals in place first. I will give a very specific piece of advice to Quanta's web person(s): Don't decide what you want on the site and make headings for everything and plan it all out. Allow it to be organic. Allow popular pages to grow in the way the readers want them to. Allow little-visited pages to be relegated to sub-links or to die altogether. If you want to keep the info available, have a "page cemetery." Just don't let it be managed by a committee. Allow it to respond to events more quickly than a meeting schedule. > This means that Quanta always has to have some paper facilities if it >> wants to serve all its members. Although I agree with you that we should >> exploit the internet far more I think there is a resistance among Quanta >> members, even those who are subscribers to this list, to the internet >> replacing paper, >> > Yep. Reading the entire mag is better on paper for me, but I also like to > be able to search the PDFs for information too. I agree the paper option > will have to be there, but would encourage people to try the PDF versions > too. I personally would prefer PDF only, with an annual mailed CD archive of all issues to this point in December. Others would prefer the paper mag, or emailed copies... I find it unfortunate that Quanta has stuck by their price point and doesn't say some thing like... £12 for membership, worldwide, with emailed magazine. £16 basic + paper mag in EU £20 basic + paper mag, rest of world Also, looking at the life stage of Quanta and its members, maybe it's time to offer £100 lifetime memberships... Count on peoples' optimism ;) Also, they should maybe email a URL for the PDF and have people fetch it from the web server, so they can track how many *readers* they actually have. I'm sure a few people just take the magazine for old time's sake. Dave _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
