I agree with a lot of what you say about the importance of websites,
but that is not what QL-ers appear to want. On the last published
figures only 21 UK Quanta members out of 154 have opted to receive
the magazine electronically. The equivalent figures for overseas
members is 9 out of 23 and they not only get a reduced subscription,
but also receive the magazine at the same time as the UK members. I
have recently been floating the idea of replacing the magazines with
a website, but there has been no enthusiasm for this.
Technically, it is not a reduced subscription - overseas members get
it for the same price as UK members: postage costs was always the
price difference that overseas members paid. £14 is the actual
membership fee. I know you'll probably just think of this as splitting
hairs. It was never written down as such because probably nobody
foresaw in 1984 that we'd (a) still be here now and (b) that the mag
could be sent out electronically, but of course it was pretty obvious
that the different amounts paid by overseas members and UK members was
down to postage differences.
The QL community is a good deal more conservative that we probably
would like to think,
Strange one this - conservative in some respects yet not in others. We
do have to bear in mind that as a community we are using a base
computer which is not far from 3 decades old, yet we insist on still
using it. It's probably a bit inevitable that some of those who choose
to use an older computer will probably not go for all the latest
technology bells and whistles and remain a bit conservative in their
outlook, while the rest will take up the latest thing. For example, I
was a bit surprised that QL Forum took off in the way it did.
Dilwyn Jones
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