Hi everyone
I'm one of those terribly rare posters who's been around from the beginning and have only donated a couple of times :-(
First, I quit Facebook on September 3. I'm still waiting for my 6 months clean chip! (I'm also looking for a newspaper, magazine or online magazine who would be interested in a pitch and article on quitting FB). So I can see
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Rat-S ... 2262266944 but not participate.
I find forums a great resource; the intensity with which I used to post on Pet Rats Canada before it imploded (politics and infighting, y'all) had to do with learning and then I began a rescue. When it went away, I started the mailing list Canada Rat Adoption on Yahoo Groups, and it too has had a declining participation and, I just saw, a large number of bouncing e-mails (dead memberships). Then Jo started the forum here, and it became the go-to place for all things rattie. People find my blog Mooshika from here (which evolved out of the old Small Victories | Petites victoires website) and, I hope, vice versa.
I never hear about stuff going on here unless someone sends me an e-mail. I should check my subscription to e-mail settings for this forum, as I never receive e-mail unless I've replied on a topic, and then only once⦠perhaps if there's a weekly digest option, then that might help increase participation.
People are now saturated with the professionalization of e-mail, groups, and content on the web. We couldn't have predicted it would become what it is today, but it seems quite obvious that that was where it would go - although I still collect mail for my old main e-mail address, I no longer use it for anything remotely personal, because I get 20 e-mails a day on it that are basically "knock knock, look what's up with us!"
Perhaps some evolution and some new marketing is in order, but I really would like the Shack to remain in a non-proprietary (i.e. non-Facebook/locked-in) format much like it is now. Perhaps partnership outreach could rekindle an interest amongst shelters and new adopters. Has anyone looked at the fancier parts of GooglePlus? Because I've started on there, taking care that I don't just reignite the same personal habits I had with Facebook, and it seems more open and able to connect to strangers and an audience, from an individual's perspective.