I too have noticed that the traffic has declined on this and the Staffs list a lot recently, I asked a question recently and had no replies at all, very unusual. In contrast there is a lot of traffic on the Middlesex/London groups I am a member of. Jan ---------------------------------------- > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] > Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2010 15:39:18 +0200 > Subject: Re: [Black Country] emails > > Hi Paul, > > This is not specific to either of the two sites or even to genealogical > mailing lists in general - it seems far wider than that. I've been active in > genealogy for over 20 years now and I've watched the interest (and internet > traffic) rise until about 5 or 6 years ago. Since then it seems to have > steadily waned. > > I think that more and more historical records have now been put online and > by subscribing to a couple of sites, you can obtain most of the information > you want - very few questions need to be asked. > > Secondly the advent of broadband has made the downloading of films and music > simplicity itself and people have tended to get lazy and become couch > potatoes. That has affected areas other than genealogy as I've noticed even > out here where I live in Crete. > > Getting people off their comfy sofas to partake in anything other than being > glued to a video screen is getting more and more difficult! > > It will be interesting to see other listers' reaction to your question. > > Regards, > > Maurice at The LONGMORE Pages > http://www.msheppard.com > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Paul Bennett" > To: "Black Country Messages" ; "Sedgley > Roots web" > Sent: Thursday, March 04, 2010 1:59 PM > Subject: [Black Country] emails > > >> >> >> >> Hello Listers >> >> >> >> Not sure what is happening I used to get loads of messages thru from both >> sites and now if I get a couple a week thats all. Surely there are others >> out there asking questions all the time. Do I have a problem with my >> computer. If anyone is out there can you give me any help but if I am not >> receiving messages I won't know. >> >> >> >> >> >> I will keep my fingers crossed. >> >> >> >> Paul >> >> >> >> _________________________________________________________________ >> Tell us your greatest, weirdest and funniest Hotmail stories >> http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/195013117/direct/01/ >> ------------------------------------- >> The only List that specifically covers the whole of the Black Country. Run >> by Black Country folk who were born and still live in the area. >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >> [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without >> the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >> > > ------------------------------------- > The only List that specifically covers the whole of the Black Country. Run by Black Country folk who were born and still live in the area. > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message _________________________________________________________________ Do you have a story that started on Hotmail? Tell us now http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/195013117/direct/01/

I'm inclined to agree, as suggested, it's associated with the growth of on line databases but the following may also be of interest; its an article which suggests email discussion lists are on the wane as a result of people using social networking sites or other internet based services. http://deb-tech.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!49551AC4A11853DE!2130.entry I don't tend to use these so can't say if it applies to us or not but it does suggest it's a wider trend than just genealogy lists. regards Peter Wharton -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of jan rockett Sent: 04 March 2010 15:09 To: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] Subject: Re: [Black Country] emails I too have noticed that the traffic has declined on this and the Staffs list a lot recently, I asked a question recently and had no replies at all, very unusual. In contrast there is a lot of traffic on the Middlesex/London groups I am a member of. Jan

An interesting article. I suppose that I regard Mailing Lists as the primitive form of Social Networking. The concept is now quite old (in IT terms). They evolved when personal communication by computer was not generally available on-line (there was no Internet). Another earlier concept was off-line conferencing. I (still) belong to an off-line conferencing service (CIX). CIX hosts hundreds (possibly thousands?) of ongoing conferences, on every conceivable topic, including, for example: Genealogy, Gardening, Satellite Television, Learning Spanish, Parenting for Armed Forces Personnel. The traffic in these conferences has also dwindled away over the last few years; most of the conferences have last message dates of at least six months ago, the great bulk of them have last message dates over several years old. I find the decline to be quite saddening as the conferences had a very "matey" and home-spun feel about them. Presumably, the Rootsweb and other Mailing Lists will have to migrate to the modern SN platform. I do not have a clear idea of how Black Country Family History would look on, say, Facebook as I no experience of modern SN. But we should really be addressing the issue of migration right now, otherwise the lists will simply die of old age. Ron S Ron S