I'm Back!
A short story (truthful) from Jon
Ripley (D5B).
I've been away for a little while but
now I'm back for good!
Any new members won't know me but I
used to deluge Chris with so many
programs and messages it took him days
to sort them out.
I took a break 18 months ago to start
up a new user group for the BBC, it
was going to be more technical than
8BS but still have something for
everybody. There would be enough
articles, games, demos, graphics,
music, applications and utilities for
everybody.
Initally there was a lot of interest
and lots of people said they were
going to subscribe for the issues many
also said that they would send in
stuff to appear on the issues.
When the group started, the actual
number of people sending in for the
issues was nowhere near the number of
people who promised to do so. I later
found out that a number of people, not
just from 8BS, were getting free
copies from their friends and not
paying me for them. Others were
waiting for me to start giving out
free copies of old issues.
I wonder how much Chris suffers from
this problem.
BUG was never put in the public domain
and I have no plans to do so at the
moment.
This set back the group quite a lot,
if people were actually paying for the
issues they were getting for free then
the group may still be about. It
created the initial problem that I had
to double the price of the issues just
to cover basic running costs costs
which I am still trying to recoup.
My other (but not the final) nemesis
regarding the group, was a lack of
people sending in submissions for the
magazine, even messages were thin on
the ground. The situation became
apparent that I was going to have to
write most if not all of the articles
for the magazine, something which most
should agree is not feasible having
one person writing 150k of text every
six weeks - and that doesn't include
software!
The final conundrum that I was unable
to solve was a number of magazines who
refused to accept any advertising for
the group. It is sad that in these
times that companies who are qualified
to deal with the BBC refuse to do so.
It is even sadder that the popular
computer press is unwilling to accept
(paid for) adverts for the older
computers.
Anyway, for five issues I hoped that
more people would send their pounds
and their discs but the lack of
interest grew and as the existing
members began to see that no-one was
sending in messages for the group then
they too lost interest. The final
membership at issue five was
dissapointing to say the least.
During the life of BBC User Group I
aquired a large amount of old BBC
software that is not available through
8BS that I am keeping in reserve for
future BUG issues, on my computer I
have the skeletons for issues 6 to 12
including two regular major articles
and a games authoring system.
If at any time in the future there are
fifty people who will subscribe to the
magazine and buy each issue and if
half of those people will submit on a
fairly regular basis then I will think
about restarting the group.
If anyone would like to recieve any
(or all) of the five issues then
please contact me. Each issue costs 1
pound if you supply the disc and the
p+p or 1.50 if I supply the disc.
My address is:
Jon Ripley, BBC User Group,
15 Wexford Court, 14 Biddenden Close,
Eastbourne, East Sussex, BN23 7HX.
Phone : 01323 768421