Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!pitt!willett!ForthNet
From: ForthNet@willett.pgh.pa.us (ForthNet articles from GEnie)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Feedback to the Forth Interest Group
Message-ID: <2568.UUL1.3#5129@willett.pgh.pa.us>
Date: 31 Mar 91 04:14:37 GMT
Organization: (n.) to be organized.  But that's not important right now.
Lines: 54

Category 1,  Topic 2
Message 136       Sat Mar 30, 1991
B.RODRIGUEZ2 [Brad]          at 20:00 EST
 
Alan Furman makes an excellent point...let's get some discussion going!  It's
clear that FIG needs to do some market research.  So, in the spirit of helping
FIG figure out what they're doing right, here's what I, a FIG member far from
the Bay Area, get from FIG.

1. Forth Dimensions.  I usually find one useful (i.e. advanced) article per
issue, which is probably my average for most of the journals I receive.  I
suspect this is due to FD's desire to keep supporting Forth beginners -- a
noble goal which I applaud, even if I don't personally benefit.

2. Local Chapter meetings.  Granted, all our chapter gets from FIG is the
permission to use the name, and a meeting notice in each FD. But these have
both helped draw fellow travelers to our meetings. I'm not sure what umbrella
we'd organize under if not for FIG... perhaps SIGForth.

3. GEnie.  Out here in the Forth boonies, this is my major contact with the
community at large.  Again, it seems that FIG is just lending the name; but
it's not clear we'd have this forum otherwise.

4. Mail order service.  Since MVP has stopped advertising, FIG is my only
reliable source of Forth books and materials.  I may only use this service
once a year, but when I do, it's certainly a benefit.

Maybe this, and similar input from others, will help FIG decide where their
resources should be directed.  If FIG is doing other things, I'm certainly
unaware of them.

Are these four worth $46 per year to me?  No, and yes.

I don't think these services cost that much to provide.  Certainly our chapter
and GEnie cost FIG nothing.  I would expect the mail order business to pay for
itself.  And my subscription to The Computer Journal -- the most comparable
journal to FD in my library
 -- costs only $24 per year.

But... I see FIG as the impetus behind these four services, without which they
would not exist.  I still view FIG as the nearest thing the Forth community
has to a central focus.  And I'm a sentimentalist -- I remember my early Forth
days when FIG was a great boon.  So for now, I'm remaining a member.

Brad Rodriguez        | brad%candice@maccs.uucp      (God willing)
 B.RODRIGUEZ2 on GEnie | brad%candice@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca
 "Shoes for industry!" | bradford@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca  (archaic)


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