[texhax] steady decline in tug membership ?

[justanotheradress at gmail.com]

Hi

I'm also a new TeX(live) user. After some back and forth I got my question
answered, but I really don't like the mailinglist-system. While this is may
good for occasional and though questions from advanced users, it's totally
the wrong way to go for newbies. What I really miss is a central forum and a
central wiki.

I really don't care about regional meetings and stuff, but I would, as soon
as my skills are better, share my knowledge in a forum and/or wiki. Somehow
this whole TeX-community is like an exclusive/closed scientific-nerd club
(don't take it too hard guys)  ;)

Just my 2 cent.


On Jan 30, 2008 7:59 PM, <bruce at auswildlife.com> wrote:

> Hi Karl,
>
> I am a new subscriber as of about three months ago and also new to TeX. I
> was overwhelmed with just the basics and so I decided to join with the
> idea that it might make things easier. So, from my most immediate point of
> view, I wasn't interested in the finer aspects of the system, I just
> wanted to master the basics so that I could get this first document done.
> I posted two questions to the group and the first response was ..."OMG,
> does he know what he is doing?' (of course the answer is no! I thought
> that would have been obvious). The second question got no responses at
> all. So in fact the value of membership to the group has been zero so far.
>
> I think that there might be quite a few people like me out there and so
> perhaps it would be good if many of the senior/advanced members were to
> bear this im mind and make the effort to help basic users (telling someone
> to refer to a manual is not really providing any help and such a response
> is not worth posting - is it??!!!). I am sure that some long-term members
> altready help as much as they can, but I thought it may be worth just
> mentioning this.
>
> cheers, Bruce
>
>
>
>
> >     I read somewhere on the tug website that there has been a steady
> >     decline in membership.  Why is this ?
> >
> > I don't know where you read it (if you can find it again, let me know),
> > but it is not true any more.  TUG gained about 75 members in 2007 over
> > 2006, and 2006 and 2005 were essentially steady (difference of 10
> > members out of ~1500).
> >
> > TUG did lose members each year between 2001-2005, which I attribute to a
> > combination of many people getting on the Internet (hence no need to get
> > the CD's) and TUGboat falling (way) behind schedule.
> >
> >     Could it be that non-members find they don't really need it ?
> >
> > It is undoubtedly true that the vast majority of TeX users have no need
> > to join TUG.  It's not like you have to join TUG to get the software :).
> >
> > Many people join TUG because they care about TeX and friends and want to
> > support it, not because they have a desperate need for TUGboat or the
> > other benefits.
> >
> >     I have joined only recently.
> >
> > Thanks for your support :).
> >
> > Best,
> > Karl
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
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> >
>
>
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