On Thu, Sep 18, 2014 at 11:53 PM, Dirk Hohndel <[email protected]> wrote:
> If we really want to reach more people it would be search advertizing. > People who decide that they want to log their dives are likely to try the > vendor application. Then they throw up in their mouth. Then they search > the internet. Given that I'm a new user, this is my opinion and my adoption experience. When I discovered Subsurface, at the beginning I thought it was a nearly dead project as many other digital logbook out there. Yes, on the website there were all the updates made on regular basis but immediately I couldn't find any community around it. Then I realized that the only way to participate (as end user) was subscribing to its mailing list. Now, I'm a seasoned IT professional so to me it''s normal to add YAML (Yet Another Mailing List) to my subscription. Nevertheless in 2014 it's really an obsolete and unfriendly way to get support for a product. For me that I work in the IT field it's common. (actually less common in the last years) to have a mailing list but today it's really weird for 99% of potential users. Usenet has been swept away form social networks and even a lot of specialized forums has been downshift form social networks impact. I'm not advocating nothing. I'm just describing reality out there. So IMHO a small, simple but important advertizing effort would be transforming this mailing list in a forum. A free PhpBB would be enough (or a free forum which comes with an effective mobile layout). This would permit to the average joe to read the whole forum and past discussions without having to subscribe or having the PITA of mail archives (totally inadequate in 2014). Having some category could easily separate hard core devel discussion from the end user questions or support. While I like seeing developers work I understand that it's really indimidating for the non computer geeks. A search function would be king. Three of the guys who usually dive with adopted Subsurface. No one of them even thought to subscribe to the list. When they have a problem they call me and I say RTFM :) -- Davide https://vimeo.com/bocio/videos _______________________________________________ subsurface mailing list [email protected] http://lists.hohndel.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/subsurface
