Subject: Cider Digest #2065, 1 April 2017 Date: Sat, 1 Apr 2017 16:01:15 -0600 (MDT) From: cider-request@talisman.com Cider Digest #2065 1 April 2017 Cider and Perry Discussion Forum Contents: winding down the Cider Digest? (Cider Digest Admin) NOTE: Digest appears whenever there is enough material to send one. Send ONLY articles for the digest to cider@talisman.com. Use cider-request@talisman.com for subscribe/unsubscribe/admin requests. Archives of the Digest are available at www.talisman.com/cider#Archives Digest Janitor: Dick Dunn ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: winding down the Cider Digest? From: Cider Digest Admin Date: Sat, 1 Apr 2017 12:37:19 -0600 OK, so today is April Fool's Day. But this isn't a prank posting; I'm serious: Is it getting time to think about shutting down the Cider Digest in the near future? The digest isn't moribund, yet it can hardly be said to be healthy. The traffic in 2016 was off 44% from the previous year, and was only about 1/4 of what the digest saw in its prime. So far this year, we're averaging 9 days between digests, with traffic averaging less than half of even last year. You can carve up the numbers however you like; they all tell the same story. Nor is it hard to figure out -why- the digest has slowed down so much. The format and capability are archaic, and today's world is much more oriented toward more-interactive social media. Although I've thought about ways to modernize it, and have discussed this with a few people, we haven't come up with anything serious yet. It's not a matter of the effort to maintain the digest. That's trivial. I can and will keep it running as long as you folks want. But rather, my concern is much the same as it was with the Mead-Lover's Digest, which shut down about three years ago: Is the Cider Digest holding out a promise of help and communication which it can't fulfill? Is it occupying a niche which could be better filled by some other vehicle for communication? Are people expecting the Cider Digest to provide something but then finding that it provides little or nothing? Your comments are welcome, either to the Digest for the next issue, or off-line directly to me. I have just one request: Don't use "tradition" as a reason to hang on to the Digest. It needs to serve a present purpose, actively. - -- Cider Digest cider-request@talisman.com Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor Boulder County, Colorado USA ------------------------------ End of Cider Digest #2065 *************************