wrote:

Some suggestions :- a lot of people no longer 'bother' with usenet.
Number of posts does not reflect the number of people stitching, I
seem to see more and more people stitching these days. Even our
little Guild is slowly gathering steam. Most of the new stitchers
there, who have by and large newly retired from their work life, do
not have a clue about usenet.

I've read some pretty good analysis about the waning posts.

I think they're all correct:
Groups like Yahoo and other forums have stripped away some posters
because they are focused on a particular technique, like silk ribbon or
cross stitch.

Some people can't - or don't want to - handle the flame wars and the off
topic chatter, or the chatter about things they're not interested in.

Some people have always been - and will always be - lurkers. So the
statistics don't tell us how many are logging into RCTN, just those who
are talking.

It would be a shame to see this ultimately die out because needlework is
such an all-encompassing endeavor and to fracture it by division isn't
healthy. It's like living in a village and never seeing what's outside
its immediate borders. I've learned so much from RCTN - from the
personal to the technique. g

Dianne