Valentín's website update thread - comments and appreciation

[Valentin Albillo]

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Hi, all:

Important note: all the many "you" that follow are generic "you", not referring to you as the particular reader of this, so don't take issue.

It seems I've failed to make myself clear. I thought people would get what I was implying in my post but it seems not, so I'll try again and this time I'll be utterly explicit.

I assumed people would've read (and taken notice) of what I said at the very end of the previous Update #28, under Last but not least. Seems it was also a wrong assumption.

There I stated that creating and posting those long and elaborated announcements took me considerable effort, in addition to scanning and making available the materials proper, and if I got no feedback at all then I wouldn't be able to distinguish between "People like them even if they don't provide any feedback, so my effort is worth it" and "People ignore them and that's why no one provides any feedback, so my effort is useless", so let's look at the evidence to see which is the case.

I posted three messages in separate threads and after several weeks elapsed, I found the following:

• My recent announcement of Project HAM got just 540 views in a whole month and only two people posted some brief comment on it. That number of views (and much more) is obtained by any casual post in a day or two, but it took me long to write the announcement telling people that I'd share 2,000 pages (now 4,000) of vintage (even historic) materials. Alas, the users of the Museum of HP Calcs didn't care at all. This alone was devastating.
        
• Then, the same happened to my post announcing mega-Update 28, which consisted of 25 files totalling 400 pages of contents. People can't (shouldn't) post there but it got less than 300 views in three weeks. It took me hours to create and post it, with all 25 descriptions and links for every file. And for less than 300 views ... in three weeks !
        
• I then announced the 2nd Anniversary of my site. Last year's announcement got 17 comments and 3,651 views. This year it got two comments and 275 views. 'Nuff said.

Also, a kind forum member, EdS2, created this very "Comments and appreciation" thread about my updates. Well, after more than two weeks it got only 340 views and only 4 people took the trouble to post anything, and that includes EdS2 himself and my friend FdR, clearly demostrating that most people don't care to comment or show appreciation for my updates.


So much for evidence. The conclusion is crystal-clear to me, so I've done exactly what I said I'd do in "Last but not least": no more wasting my time on lengthy and detailed announcements which most people don't care about, and no more announcements taking the top position in the Forum.

What now ? Well, people not interested in my materials won't have to see my occasional update announcements at the top, while the four or five people actually interested (you know who you are) will have to make the minimal effort of bookmarking my one Updates post and/or my site's main page, and checking for updates regularly, say once a week.

I know, I know, it's a tremendous effort having to click a bookmark once a week to check if there's something new, and you'd rather have the materials' availability and detailed descriptions spoon-fed to you but there you are ! The good news is that now you aren't expected to provide any feedback ... which you weren't doing, anyway ... !

It's also quite revealing that now that this "Comments ..." thread does get some comments, none of them are about the materials but about the post announcing them.

Reminds me of the old proverb: "Cuando el dedo apunta al cielo, el tonto mira el dedo".

Thanks for your comments about anything, and regards.
V.