On 07/01/2014 03:50, Timothy Swenson wrote:
I've been sitting out the conversations about Quanta, QL Today, etc,
but I thought I would chime in here.
When it comes to volunteer projects, we have to remember the old
adage: "You can take a horse to water, but you can't make him drink"
Having been on the Board of 4 non-profits, and know how hard it can be
to push volunteers to get things done.
For QL websites, we really have to wait for a volunteer to step up and
do something. Geoff is right about needing a place for long form
articles. At the moment, I use two QL websites; the QL forum for news
and short discussions, and Dilwyn's site for downloads and basic QL
information.
I have not done any longer QL writing in a while, but if I did, there
is not a single location for it. I'd probably host it on my website
and point to it from the QL forums (I've done this some recent ZX81
work).
Now, some have suggested that Quanta step up and fill some role,
mostly an article oriented website, but they may not be able to find a
volunteer to do that. I'm working a new website for a local Museum,
but I'm so rusty with HTML stuff that it is a bit of a struggle and
not very enjoyable.
Eventually, someone will get frustrated enough and do it themselves.
This might be enough of a catalyst that gets others involved. Until
then all the gnashing of teeth will do nothing.
I do admit until a few minutes ago, it had been years (8+) since I
visited Geoff's web page. I did not know it had a news section. I've
really only been focusing on one website for my QL news (ok, on the
mailing list). I don't know if Geoff announced his news section on
the QL forum. If he did, I missed it.
So, if people to have long-form articles for the QL, don't just leave
it sitting on your local system. Use the existing web sites that we
do have. If you don't have a location to host it, ask the mailing
list for someone who can. If we have enough authors writing new
material, that might encourage someone to create a newsletter.
Tim Swenson
_______________________________________________
QL-Users Mailing List
http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.ht
Perhaps I should explain the background. Originally I had a site on a
free host financed by sensible and relevant Google adverts. This went
well until the host was overtaken by another host with doubtful
advertising. I took the decision to go over to a commercial host and
have not regretted it.
I rewrote the site for the new host and eventually added a news section
to encourage regular visits to the site. This was more news summary than
news. After the closure of QL Today I decided to expand the news
section, especially as Quanta's previously good news coverage had
disappeared. I have been experimenting with in depth news coverage but
kept quiet about it to see the reaction via the statistics. My present
host has really good statistics.
This year was my first attempt at publicity and it been very successful.
In my farewell article in QL Today I did plead for an in depth website,
but no one seemed to be interested. I suggested that Tony Firshman
offers cheap hosting - Dilwyn's site is hosted by Tony, but also said I
would be able to host it on mine. If I hosted it, I was thinking of a
sister site to Just Words! possible called QL in Depth. I did warn in my
article that there are legal problems with an open website because of,
for example, copyright and potential libelous content, but I am well
used to subediting for QL Today and I think these would be problems that
could easily be addressed,
Best wishes,
Geoff
_______________________________________________
QL-Users Mailing List
http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
