[texhax] steady decline in tug membership ?

[bruce at auswildlife.com]

Hi Karl,

I am a new subscriber as of about three months ago and also new to TeX. I
was overwhelmed with just the basics and so I decided to join with the
idea that it might make things easier. So, from my most immediate point of
view, I wasn't interested in the finer aspects of the system, I just
wanted to master the basics so that I could get this first document done.
I posted two questions to the group and the first response was ..."OMG,
does he know what he is doing?' (of course the answer is no! I thought
that would have been obvious). The second question got no responses at
all. So in fact the value of membership to the group has been zero so far.

I think that there might be quite a few people like me out there and so
perhaps it would be good if many of the senior/advanced members were to
bear this im mind and make the effort to help basic users (telling someone
to refer to a manual is not really providing any help and such a response
is not worth posting - is it??!!!). I am sure that some long-term members
altready help as much as they can, but I thought it may be worth just
mentioning this.

cheers, Bruce




>     I read somewhere on the tug website that there has been a steady
>     decline in membership.  Why is this ?
>
> I don't know where you read it (if you can find it again, let me know),
> but it is not true any more.  TUG gained about 75 members in 2007 over
> 2006, and 2006 and 2005 were essentially steady (difference of 10
> members out of ~1500).
>
> TUG did lose members each year between 2001-2005, which I attribute to a
> combination of many people getting on the Internet (hence no need to get
> the CD's) and TUGboat falling (way) behind schedule.
>
>     Could it be that non-members find they don't really need it ?
>
> It is undoubtedly true that the vast majority of TeX users have no need
> to join TUG.  It's not like you have to join TUG to get the software :).
>
> Many people join TUG because they care about TeX and friends and want to
> support it, not because they have a desperate need for TUGboat or the
> other benefits.
>
>     I have joined only recently.
>
> Thanks for your support :).
>
> Best,
> Karl
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