RE: ADMIN: An Open Letter to the TECHWR-L Community

["Jones, Donna" <DJones -at- zebra -dot- com>]

-----Rob Partridge wrote:-----
Do you think there is a strong possibility that a mandatory fee of any
type will lead to the stagnation and gradual attrition of this list? 
<snip>
And inexorably the fee-paying list will dwindle to
nothing. Survival of the fittest (or cheapest in this case). 
-------------------------------


My sentiments exactly. My suggestion of maybe merging this list into STC
somehow was met negatively, partly because of the fees involved in joining
STC. No disrespect to Eric or Deb, but people aren't going to pay to use
this list. That's what makes some of the STC SIG lists have such low traffic
as to be worthless (and you have to pay to join the SIG before you can find
out whether it's worth joining).

What makes this forum work is that anyone with an interest in technical
communication can read or participate in a conversation. Add in a
subscription fee, and you'll wind up with nothing but a bunch of crusty old
farts who write back and forth to moan about how good the list used to be or
to blast anyone who comes in with a question that they answered before. No
one is going to pay to participate in that (at least now, you get blasted
for free!). The ads on the web page and the advertisements that Eric sends
out are directly related to things that many of us do, and they help to keep
the list free for the users. I like that, and I hope it stays that way.

The whole idea of turning this list over to a board of directors or any kind
of committee-like structure scares me. Personalities are bound to clash, and
the list and web page will suffer as a result. I'm hoping that the list
continues as it is, run by one or two neutral people who are more concerned
with making techwr-l a success from a technical communication perspective
than from a business perspective. Eric and Deb donated time over the years
because they cared about the list and web site content. It doesn't sound to
me like they didn't make any money at all, just that the hourly rate wasn't
too high when you factored in all that they did. (Eric, please correct me if
I'm wrong on this...)

Donna (asbestos Underoos and all!)


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