[Gloucs] Future meetings and/or future of the LUG

[Paul]

On 14/02/12 09:24, Bob Henson wrote:
> On 13/02/2012 10:18 PM, Glyn Davies wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Next Tuesday is our next planned meeting date. No talk planned as yet.
>> Any offers?
>>
>> Last month Tony turned up as 'back up' talk with more of his Perl
>> masterclass. Unfortunately, he was the only one to turn up. Thank you
>> for your effort Tony and sorry it was wasted.
>>
>> So, this raises the question "Is it worth trying to continue with LUG
>> meetings?". Have LUGs 'run their course'? Will new initiatives such as
>> hackerspace kill off LUGs (they certainly won't help)?
>>
>> Interested in your thoughts. Lack of discussion would imply lack of
>> interest in which case I'd suggest we state that the LUG is inactive
>> on the website and leave it for new blood to resurrect. From my PoV as
>> unelected/adopted meeting arranger it would make things simpler.
>> Perhaps quarterly socials would be better?
>>
>> If we continue, it would certainly seem sensible that we get some
>> confirmed attendees before holding future meetings.
>>
>> As I said, interested in your thoughts.
>>
> I don't know if the views of a lurker in the background are of interest,
> but you asked, so here goes. One of my problems is that Tetbury is just
> far enough away to be a tad difficult to get to the meetings on time,
> but I doubt that has any relevance to the issue. Gloucester is a big
> place and many Linux users must be near to what sounds like an excellent
> venue.
>
> Your talks seem to be aimed at computer professionals. If not many
> experts are turning up, what about the learners? Would "dumbing down"
> bring in more people. The talks are way above the level of many ordinary
> Linux users, and have not been relevant to a learner like myself. Many
> have had little to do with Linux per se - at ordinary user level, at
> least. Are existing members sufficiently evangelical about Linux to want
> to "spread the word" and increase the number of users out there? Would
> that bore you all to tears? I don't know - only you can say.
>
> It might well be that young people or new users generally these days
> really aren't interested in how the operating system works (I'm retired
> and have time to play around a little with Linux) but perhaps most users
> want to *use* a system, not learn about it, in which case there would be
> no point in trying to change things in that direction.
>
> Regards,
>
> Bob
>
>
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>

I've only been to a couple of meetings over the past few years but 
consider myself a lurker much like Bob.

I think Bob has made some good points here.... I'm no expert either but 
the two meetings I have attended have been a little over my head, albeit 
still of interest.

Re the meetings having run their course, I think Glyn may have a point 
here but that doesn't mean the Glos LUG should wind itself up.

I do always read the e-mails via the mailing lists and find many of them 
of interest. If the meetings do stop (or intervals between meetings 
change) then perhaps there may still be a demand for contact via the 
mailing lists. Being able to post queries, problems and points of 
interest is still of interest to me...

May be what we're seeing is a lull in interest or just organic change in 
response to many factors such as the maturity of Linux now.

When I look at my Linux set up (Mandriva) there are still basic issues 
I'd like to pursue when time and energy allows, such as understanding 
basic security of Linux (Firewalls, Anti-malware, browser security etc) 
or simply how to view a mht file in Firefox!....

Hope this helps and is viewed as constructive.

regards

Paul