Annie Hill wrote: 'to let people know that there's more on the inside than they can see on the outside'.

As Deep Thought said: 'You're not going to like this.'  Because it probably means a lot of work.  But, what about putting really, really useful Member's Pages on the Public Pages, just one at a time and only for a week or so.  We would emphasise that this is a 'tease' to attract new members and possibly list what they missed by not logging on last week.  Or would this be self-defeating because the old pages would be accessible forever?

And how about on the Home Page have: Only $5 A Year! in big, friendly letters. (I know it's 3 quid but we can't insert a pound sign here.  Come to think of it, better put it in US$ anyway - who knows what a pound is worth?)  I think that Join Now should be in-yer-face when you open the Home Page, instead of politely tucked away via another click.

If we get no obvious reaction, we can go back to being tasteful and discreet.

Well, back in my day about 40 years ago a pound was worth about $150.00. No, wait, that was a different pound. I like the "Only $5.00 a year!" idea, but of course the full newsletter membership is closer to ten. A minor quibble. It would take more thought as to how to bring pages to the front. What about just bringing out individual threads? David, is that possible? If one thread from time to time remained permanently visible we could live with that. I'm liking some of the ideas I'm seeing here.

David Tyler wrote: A quick update from the bottom end of Tasmania, where it's cold, wet and windy, with snow on the mountains - in the height of summer!

In the past week - 636 visits from 326 visitors in 37 different countries; 40% of those were new visits, that came through search engines and referring sites. People are actively searching to find out about junk rig. We have to let them know that there's more on the inside of this website than they can see from the outside.

The other extreme here David, it's hot and humid enough to turn a rock into a soggy mess. Washed some of the dust off the boat yesterday, it was turning green.

Hi Jeff

You're right about people not being 'joiners' any more.  We have the same problem with our tramping (hiking) clubs in NZ.  It is quite an important issue, because the tramping clubs are part of Federated Mountain Clubs, which provides an effective watchdog to alert people to, and fight against, actions that degrade and limit access to our wonderful wild areas.

Hard to tell from the inside, but I reckon the JRA would come across as both attractive and interesting.  Junk rig seems to boom in bad times, when people are short of money.  I guess they tend to concentrate on improving what they have rather than buying new.  I shouldn't be surprised to see a resurgence of interest over the next couple of years and this time, we will probably keep the members because there is so much accessible material and a lot going on.

I don't think we need to worry too much about the size of membership.  Small is beautiful!

I wouldn't expect a lot of people to join--for one thing, most people wandering through the WWW are very reluctant to PAY to see anything out on the web.  Despite a decade of such things, there are only two sites I've paid to access to date, and this is one of them, and I was a paid member prior to the website here.  In fact I'm usually turned away at just the need to sign up for a "free membership" to read something.

David Tyler wrote:People are finding us, now that the old website is no longer active, and the new website appears at the top of the page when you Google for 'junk rig'. But they're not joining us - yet. Why is that, I wonder?

David Tyler wrote:

---- People are finding us, now that the old website is no longer active, and the new website appears at the top of the page when you Google for 'junk rig'. But they're not joining us - yet. Why is that, I wonder?

David,