eBook Community's Twelfth Anniversary: State of The Group Message

Everyone,

A few days ago this group reached its 12th Anniversary. TeBC was
started January 5, 1996 under the name "eBook-List".

Since that humble beginning, TeBC membership has grown (to now about
3000 registered subscribers), and well over 33,000 messages have been
posted.

Thanks to everyone who has made this group a great success over the
years!

On a more somber note, I notice that the number of messages posted to
TeBC during 2007 was *significantly* lower than in prior years. Refer
to the monthly posting chart at the TeBC home page:

   http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ebook-community/

(In 2006, we had 2979 messages. In 2007 we had 1297, a drop of 56%)

I am unsure of the reasons why we see the major dropoff in 2007. There
are a number of possible explanations. For example:

1) The rise of blogs and new types of online forums have provided new
   and spiffier outlets for people to express themselves.

   (Maybe the traditional "mailing list", a.k.a. "listserv" is
   becoming too "old-fashioned" for many people to get excited about
   any more.)

2) Competition from other ebook-related discussion forums.

   (E.g., Mobileread has captured a significant chunk of the ebook
   hardware discussion, so we don't see anywhere near as much
   discussion on hardware as we used to.)

3) This group is simply losing its relevance for reasons that I don't
   understand, but others may. Maybe the ebook industry is finally
   maturing and so there's less need for a forum like TeBC.
   

Even though "metadiscussions" (discussions about the group) are
usually discouraged, in this case I invite everyone to provide their
views on why TeBC group discussion has significantly dropped the last
year.

Is this something temporary, or a long-term trend?

And more importantly, how can we make TeBC more relevant to the ebook
and digital publishing universe?

Should we consider a switch away from the traditional 'listserv' to a
different type of forum? (E.g., blog-based.) Should we simply "merge"
with another "new-type" forum?

Your frank insights are invited.

And of course, if you are interested in helping this group in any
capacity, including a leadership position, let me know in private
email.

It's always been my intent to build a group leader's team to oversee
both the day-to-day operation and the evolution of this group to
maintain relevance in the ebook and digital publication universe. Up
to now it's mostly been run by me, with a little help from my friends
(David Rothman and Kent Larsen, to name two.)

Thanks again to everyone for all your contributions to TeBC. TeBC is
*your* group, so let's see how we can make this group relevant again.

Jon Noring
TeBC founder and co-moderator





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