FreeBSD UK User Group - The state of the nation?

[Simon Clayton]

> Interestingly some numbers came to light at the weekend. The UK user
group has
> nearly 450 members, the mailing list has 120 subscribers and if you
were to
> look through the archives you would think that we only consisted of
probably
> two dozen people.
>
> So the interesting questions are;
>  Why do nearly less than 25% of the members subscribe to the list?
>  What can we do to get more people involved? (more on that one later)
>  What impression does the small number of posters give?
>
> I don't claim to have the answers to these, but I would be interested
in
> people's opinions. If the list, and the events currently organised
there on,
> are the focal point of the group, what are the other 75% getting out
of the
> group and what is their perception of it's worth?

OK, if 75% of the people are not subscribed to the list then how to they
know
what is going on?  I also think that someone should cross match the
lists to
find out how many people are on the list without being memebers (I was
for quite
a while).

Who does the stats for this stuff?  I know this may recieve some
negative
comments but could we send an e-mail to non-subscribed members to try
and
pursuade them to join the list - if they have joined the group maybe
they
were on the list once but didn't like the impression they got - let's
send
out a really professional e-mail advising of the sucess of the Oxford
conference and the next conference.  What about someone also creating a
web page to show the status/announcements.  IMHO having another list for
sending out announcements (not discussing) is valid as some people may
subscribe to that rather than the discussion list.

Simon