#171

10 Years Later: still Lonely

by Fred Showker

Every few months I get an email that makes me stop and think; where have we been? You may remember my 60-Second Window article #65 One is the loneliest number: abandoned along the e-zone i-way, written back in January of 1995:
    > I pick up the December 18 issue of Newsweek with
    > "1995 the year of cyberspace" plastered on the cover..."

I went back and revisited the long forgotten article and was dismayed to think it is still true -- in part. The email I received is like so many others, proclaiming: "You have our record WRONG!" But I'm getting ahead of myself; here's the rest of the story.

In late 1986 I began the challenge of keeping the User Group Registry. Don't ask me why, nobody asked me to do it, at the time it just seemed like a cool thing to do. Life was more simple then. Anyway, I used Forethought's wonderful new software product for the Mac called "FileMaker" and started entering the computer clubs (user groups) who registered at the dawn of Apple's user group forum on ALink. At the time there were 153 user groups, and we were #154. Later I worked with Jerry Kline to start AOL's User Group Forum, and I continued entering each group as they registered. In 1995 we moved to the Internet and it became a lot easier because I could use an online form for groups to register.

Through nearly 20 years, the database went up and down. Groups came and groups went. Sometime around 1990 it hit its crescendo, and in 1995 it began a slow, downhill slide.

The email I received saying "You have our record WRONG!" made me go back and dig out the records. I found the disgruntled submitter's record where he posted it in early 2004 -- down to the letter. Then I found another -- same group -- from 2001, then another from 1998. While I was poking around, I found dates back to the '90s and earlier. I checked many of the references to find only dead ends. I tried calling some, and yes, did find surprised voices saying "Sure, we're still doing well!"

Today I see that for every new registration, just about three go dead. I purged the links through the VSE Link Tester -- yup, sure enough over 35% of the links now dead. Time to remove them from the web site. To me, and the rest of our readership, these groups are now dead. But are they?

In 1990, the Mac user group community had registered just over 800 user groups world-wide. The Mug News Service was sending out roughly 1,200 disks, each month, to user group newsletter editors. Today there would be scarcely 300. That is, unless the lonely ones let someone know they're still alive.

You see, in my 1995 article One is the loneliest number I talked about the Internet being like a remote rural road. No one drives by just to drive by your place. You won't be 'found' unless you do something to help you be found. Buying a billboard out along the highway doesn't necessarily mean someone will drive by it. And if they do, but the number is wrong, your efforts and money are lost.

The sender of the email had at some point registered the group -- but then immediately forgotten about having done so. Returning some time later, after somehow finding the link, he read the information that, to him, could not have possibly been written. But it was.

Today I suggest that If you want people to come, make yourself known. Most importantly, if you register and submit your web site's links -- no matter where you register -- keep a record of when, where and how you registered. Go to your January 2006 calendar and write them in. This will remind you to return and revisit those links and registrations and make sure they're up to date.

Yes, it's still lonely out there along the information highway.
Still lonely after all these years.

Thanks for reading...

Fred Showker
 
"True friendship is like sound health,
      the value of it is seldom known
          until it be lost."
                  Charles Caleb Colton

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