Are we top heavy?

[Jim Horn]

Like any open communications form, the ratio of frequent contributors to contributors to non-posting readers seems like most. Even back in the 1970's heyday of the HP-65 Users Club with its sizeable monthly Journals printed and sent to about 5000 members worldwide, I suspect the ratios were about the same as today. There are always the few with the time, energy and burning passion to really dig into to obscure minutiae and document what they find. There is the larger group of clever folks who write a unique program and publish it. And there is the much larger set of interested users who want to get more from one of their tools.

The same is true today. Look at MAKE magazine, for example - there's a small core group of frequent writers, a constantly varying set of article writers and a massive set of subscriber / readers who probably build a tiny fraction of what gets described but learns from all.

What strikes me as important is that the frequent contributors encourage all the others. Being a totally volunteer bunch that does all this because they want to, that tends to be the case. It's hard to suppress the joy of discovery when writing about same. I've enjoyed that aspect of the HP calculator scene since its inception.

For what it's worth, that can be seen in the flesh at the annual HHC (HP Handheld Conferences). For those who can go, I most heartily recommend doing so - you'll never forget it!

Thank you, Katie, for an excellent discussion topic - and your frequent posting on this forum with your deep insight and delightful enthusiasm.