Efficient communications

What is the best way for cavers to communicate with the wider caving community?

  • Telepathy

    Votes: 8 19.0%
  • Gesticulation

    Votes: 5 11.9%
  • Postcards

    Votes: 5 11.9%
  • In a small cabal in a pub while under the influence of alcohol

    Votes: 16 38.1%
  • Online forums/texting/email

    Votes: 24 57.1%
  • Bi-monthly or occasional newsletter or magazine

    Votes: 13 31.0%
  • Other - please state in thread below

    Votes: 6 14.3%
  • Hidden Earth

    Votes: 9 21.4%

  • Total voters
    42

cap n chris

Well-known member
We're 15 years into a new millennium and the internet is approaching 50 years of age, there is a whiff of hearsay that perhaps the majority of cavers live in a world of isolation, not communicating with each other quite as often as is possible. Obviously this poll will be massively skewed because you're reading it online, but you can answer for up to twenty of your caving chums who don't have sparking devices, to provide an insight into how cavers pass on information between them....
 

graham

New member
It all depends on whether you are communicating which pub you will be drinking in tonight or whether you are communicating the profound scientific insights of your long-term, in-depth study of the formation of the three counties system.

Horses for courses.

Now, what was the question again?
 

martinr

Active member
Pre-internet, my club would have a pub meet on Thurs in/near London for the "town" members and a mid week meet for the "locals" at the Hunters. We'd all meet up Fri night at the Hunters and sometimes Sun PM too. We had a regular monthly club newsletter and an editor who made the effort to keep club members updated with club news (births/marriages/deaths, new members, club news etc) and anything else important. Committee minutes were paraphrased and included in the newsletter so we knew what the officers were up to. We had a published a membership list with address and phone numbers of every member. It all seemed to work well, and the newsletter provided an archive for the club's activity, and the newsletter was exchanged with other clubs for copies of their newsletters

We now have a Yahoo newsgroup for our club where members don't use real names so you have no idea who is talking (unless it is Whitelackington because we all know who HE is) . The weekly pub meets have died. The newsletter is infrequent. No published membership list any more. No record of who joins/leaves club. No list of members or their status. When you question this you are told it's all on the newsgroup (but it isnt).

I suppose that's what you call progress?

 

nearlywhite

Active member
Martinr, that might not be the fault of the internet - a shift in the demography of the club (i.e. people getting older and accruing more responsibilities), losing an enthusiastic social member or petrol becoming more expensive to name but a few. People are drinking less in pubs now so it might be the fault in a shift in social attitudes.

Perhaps a facebook group might solve some of the anonymity issues? Or change it to a breakfast club/something non alcoholic (though I must say pubs are much better for this since the smoking ban). Maybe even a few more big dinner events might bring people closer together (or failing that the most miserable caving trip imaginable).

I'm currently travelling around another continent that wouldn't have been possible without the internet, and I think it's pretty good at being what people want it to be. But here's to the pub  :beer:
 

Peter Burgess

New member
We have a well-attended monthly pub meeting. We have a website which gives all members with email (all except three members) access to all other members via email (either individually or by group), a means to post trip reports, add diary events, read minutes, read newsletters. We also have three printed (paper or PDF) newsletters each year. The website allows any member to see a full current membership list. We have a forum facility within the website. The club has never been more connected than it is today. Those on Facebook have access to other FB members, and newsletters. Yet there are still those who tell us they don't know what is going on. I cannot but help think this is their problem, not the club's!
 

Bottlebank

New member
Peter Burgess said:
We have a well-attended monthly pub meeting. We have a website which gives all members with email (all except three members) access to all other members via email (either individually or by group), a means to post trip reports, add diary events, read minutes, read newsletters. We also have three printed (paper or PDF) newsletters each year. The website allows any member to see a full current membership list. We have a forum facility within the website. The club has never been more connected than it is today. Those on Facebook have access to other FB members, and newsletters. Yet there are still those who tell us they don't know what is going on. I cannot but help think this is their problem, not the club's!

I tend to agree with most of that, it's easier to stay in touch than it's ever been.

I was in a club with regular weekly meetings when I joined, those fell by the wayside as they were mainly attended by older members who lived locally. Over time the membership spread out geographically.
 

Pitlamp

Well-known member
I haven't answered the poll because I don't think the questions are as well chosen as perhaps they might be, in order to produce the most useful results.

It's a double edged sword. Because there are now so many different ways to communicate it's actually difficult to be sure you've not missed something. So it can be counter productive.

At least one of my clubs finds the social side of actually getting together for a meeting outweighs the benefits resulting from slavishly staring into a screen.

I use the internet a great deal but there's no substitute for the spoken word and the written word (i.e. real words, on paper).
 

mch

Member
nearlywhite's comments are spot on - the internet is what you make of it but an organisation needs someone with the enthusiasm and expertise to use it to its best advantage (but as Pitlamp says, the spoken word and writing on an actual piece of paper is the ideal)
 

graham

New member
Don't quite see why writing on paper is seen as an ideal. I had a nice exchange with someone this afternoon who is writing a paper about a cave dig (exploratory and archaeological). I was able to give her links to some information that would otherwise have meant a 40 mile round trip to read on paper and we had some interesting and amusing chit chat about the content.

Of course we could have communicated by post, in which case the conversation would have taken until mid August, we could have phoned one another, which may have been inconvenient, I read and answered the emails in between doing various other jobs around the house and may have been unable to take an extended call, or we could have tried either telepathy or dance.

Email is an excellent medium of communication between two people who are reasonably frequently at a screen. But not everybody is, even if they want to be. It would be crap, for example, as a method of communicating up a 35 m wet pitch.

Horses for courses.
 

Bottlebank

New member
I haven't answered the poll in case the cave police subsequently ban me from communicating by any other method  :)
 

Bottlebank

New member
Peter Burgess said:
I want to complain that too many people are being too sensible in their poll selections. Who do I write to?

I think you need submit your complaint by telex, can't seem to find the number at the moment though.

BTW, I've reversed my previous decision and decided to join those who feel telepathy is the correct answer. Despite the obvious drawbacks I'm pretty sure that can't be monitored, so should be safe.
 

Les W

Active member
Bottlebank said:
BTW, I've reversed my previous decision and decided to join those who feel telepathy is the correct answer. Despite the obvious drawbacks I'm pretty sure that can't be monitored, so should be safe.

Yet. Give the government time and they will monitor it or make it illegal...  :unsure:
 

Pitlamp

Well-known member
Les W said:
Bottlebank said:
BTW, I've reversed my previous decision and decided to join those who feel telepathy is the correct answer. Despite the obvious drawbacks I'm pretty sure that can't be monitored, so should be safe.

Yet. Give the government time and they will monitor it or make it illegal...  :unsure:

Or find a way to tax it . . . .  :(
 

mch

Member
graham said:
Don't quite see why writing on paper is seen as an ideal.
It's a question of tactility. Holding a piece of paper and reading the words printed thereon is far more pleasurable than tapping at a keyboard and peering at a screen, imho. That isn't to say that email isn't extremely convenient and efficient, just a little impersonal.
 
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