On 2009-12-14, niisonge > wrote:

> BTW, how come nobody posts on here, or joins in discussions? This list
> and so many other tea lists seem almost lifeless. It's much more fun
> on Sanzui. Lots of posts everyday, and better set-up. We should have a
> better, more powerful forum than one like this. This posting method is
> ancient.

Hey Warren! Good to see you still posting here.

Keep in mind that Google Groups is just one way to access USENET. For
better or worse, USENET isn't that popular today -- it's not just this
newsgroup that's suffering a loss of activity. Like it or not, a lot of
folks who used to post here have moved on to other places. And while
there are some great people left here, there are also some slightly....
well let's just say "eccentric" folks, some of whom post quite a lot.

One advantage of USENET is that no one (whether a company or individual)
owns it, and the information is likely to be preserved for quite a long
time. Since a newsgroup is not a forum, I don't know if it's fair to say
that we should have a "better, more powerful forum" - newsgroups are a
little closer to email than to a web-based forum by nature, and that's
not going to change. Anyway, to me, it's the community more than the
interface itself, that really matters.

I think a lot of the traffic that used to be here has moved to forums
like Teachat. While there are some disadvantages to supporting a site
run by a tea vendor (especially one who attracts some pretty clueless
customers), I do find that there's a little more action over there. Of
course there is also a lot of noise.

Shameless (but, I think, relevant) self-promotion -- I have started my
own forum, mostly focused on Chinese and (to a lesser extent so far),
Japanese tea, which is still growing and building critical mass
(slowly). I've posted about it on this group in the past, and my
signature has details. You are welcome to join / post information,
questions, photos, etc. The site isn't the nicest looking thing, and
could use a face lift, but comments and suggestions for improvements are
welcome in the relevant sections of the forum. What it really needs is
more users and more active discussions.

It's a little unfair to compare any of these communities to Sanzui,
Tea4u, Potsart or any of the other Chinese language tea / teaware forums
simply because I think there is still quite a bit more knowledge and
interest in tea in Chinese language communities (though I am seeing more
participation in English language tea communities from ethnic Chinese
who live in Malaysia and other SE Asian countries). The reason those
communities are so active is because they have a lot of members, not
because they have a nice forum interface.

--
Multi-lingual forum for Chinese and Japanese tea and teawa
http://teadrunk.org/