Declan McKinney wrote:

Andrew Bailey wrote:

I am neither for or against Twitter. To me, it is just another possible communication tool which I am exploring, having decided some time ago that you have to keep looking at what the internet offers.

Andrew,

I'll never be a big social networker, as you'll gather by the length of time it takes me to respond. Though I was only thinking about Twitter for a specific purpose with another user group, the tone of the responses to your post confirm my reservations in testing it out any further.

I do agree with you that you can reach people who would not otherwise stumble across the JRA. There's a whole generation out there who wouldn't communicate any other way. Well done for taking this initiative - fresh thinking is always a good thing.

Thanks Declan,

Like you, I'm not a social media evangelist, but I am fascinated at what the internet can do if you use it correctly, when you are trying to promote something.

I had a website three years ago, that was getting about 200 hits a month. I put a link to it on another site, that was getting a lot of national publicity at the time and in three weeks I got 63000 hits ! And that continued for over a year, following that one-off, static link.

But the Twitter thing is just a bit of fun. At this stage, it may just pull in a few unrelated responses from people selling new corn-plasters. And/or, it may catch the eye of potential jr users. But as I said, we dont have targets to hit..........yet!

 

Andrew Bailey wrote:

I am neither for or against Twitter. To me, it is just another possible communication tool which I am exploring, having decided some time ago that you have to keep looking at what the internet offers.

Andrew,

What's to lose?  What indeed.  Anyone who wants to inform people about junk rig, regardless of their chosen media, is doing somebody a good turn. 

I was brought up in a religious household where I was told that the benighted heathens  went to Hell regardless of whether they had been Brought The Word.  (Probably the start of my disenchantment with the whole deal - I've always had a rather over-developed sense of fair play.)  So it bothers me to think of those in sailing hell who have not yet been brought the word.  It's not so much that one wishes to proselytise as one wishes to make sure that people realise that there is an alternative.

David Tyler wrote:

Ketil Greve wrote:

Declan McKinney wrote:

Andrew Bailey wrote:

As we are an increasingly international brigade, it will be interesting to see whether this will enable and attract enthusiasts' dialogue, 

...whether others would be interesting in playing a little more with Twitter in this regard.

I guess we need to go to the Yacht Club Bar. That should be the perfect place for bragging, tall stories, and gossiping. We could even use "slightly clouded" as an excuse if seriousity should bring us down, ikke sant?

 

I have to look in at Facebook (with my privacy settings tied up as tight as possible), or I wouldn't see my little grand-daughter growing up - it's the only way my daughters seem to communicate with the world. But I don't like it.

I have yet to see any point or benefit in using Twitter, and have kept away.

I had hoped that we could use these fora for all the uses that Andrew, Declan and Ketil mention. The "Bar" for social chat, the "Cruisers" for boat movements, the "Technical" for designing, building and modifying our boats and rigs, and so on. The one thing against doing everything here is that Wild Apricot does not (yet) fully support all the mobile devices and browsers. I can read these fora on my iPad, but can't write to them. That's a pity. If smart phones and tablets were fully supported, I wouldn't see any need to use any other social media.

David,

The JRA fora are great for those who know about them. But, just as you have found, that some people ( your daughters) use Facebook, I am suggesting that  others may use Twitter, which in turn, may just lead them to our website. Whats to loose?

David Tyler wrote:

Ketil Greve wrote:

Declan McKinney wrote:

Andrew Bailey wrote:

As we are an increasingly international brigade, it will be interesting to see whether this will enable and attract enthusiasts' dialogue, 

...whether others would be interesting in playing a little more with Twitter in this regard.

I guess we need to go to the Yacht Club Bar. That should be the perfect place for bragging, tall stories, and gossiping. We could even use "slightly clouded" as an excuse if seriousity should bring us down, ikke sant?

 

I have to look in at Facebook (with my privacy settings tied up as tight as possible), or I wouldn't see my little grand-daughter growing up - it's the only way my daughters seem to communicate with the world. But I don't like it.

I have yet to see any point or benefit in using Twitter, and have kept away.

I had hoped that we could use these fora for all the uses that Andrew, Declan and Ketil mention. The "Bar" for social chat, the "Cruisers" for boat movements, the "Technical" for designing, building and modifying our boats and rigs, and so on. The one thing against doing everything here is that Wild Apricot does not (yet) fully support all the mobile devices and browsers. I can read these fora on my iPad, but can't write to them. That's a pity. If smart phones and tablets were fully supported, I wouldn't see any need to use any other social media.

I can post with my Android 2.X phone, but the editor is stupid. I have to enter most html manually. If I want to new line I have to enter < followed by "br" followed by another >. Then, just to keep me from getting too befuddled, push carriage return so I'm also looking at a newline on screen.
If I want emphasis I have to explicitly enter the html. It's awkward, as in: push number key, push alt, push < push spacebar which takes me back to alpha, push em, push number, push alt, push >. Html that requires opening and closing tags, like this, are even worse, because < and / are not on the same keyboard screen.
And I only rarely sit down in front of a real computer.
All that said, I strongly agree with David on the Twitter / Fakebook / Google+ / other social networking tools issue. This site is all I really want to check; I want to get my complete junk rig fix here. Much as I miss Arne I really don't want to even check the yahoo group.
Jeff