[C320-list] Catalina 320 owners group on Facebook?

[Jack Brennan]

I used to run the Bristol web site back when I had a Bristol 30. For a long time, we had a thriving Yahoo email list that really brought people together and a web site that stockpiled a great deal of basic info on the boats.

Then some internal politics intervened, and one of the members worked hard at shifting as many people as possible to Facebook. That eventually killed the Yahoo list and split the members. I drifted away (and eventually bought a 320) as the Facebook site become dominated by one guy.

Now there is a Google email list that doesn’t get much traffic, a successor web site that’s pretty weak and a Facebook site that seems to be blocked except for people OKed by the guy who started it. No browsing allowed.

Ordinary Bristol owners lost a great resource and body of knowledge. Of course, the Bristols are ancient now and that contributed to the loss of participation. But replacing Yahoo with a less accessible and usable Facebook site didn’t help at all.

Jack Brennan
Sonas, 1998 Catalina 320
Tierra Verde, Fl.



Sent from Mail for Windows 10

From: Doug Treff
Sent: Thursday, June 4, 2020 7:59 PM
To: c320-list at lists.catalina320.com
Subject: Re: [C320-list] Catalina 320 owners group on Facebook?

I belong to the Facebook group as well. Thre's definitely been a spike in activity over there this spring.

What I will say is that another hobby of mine also had a very active email group and after they created a similar Facebook group, the email list slowly became irrelevant. I mourned that loss and I certainly hope that we can keep this email group alive for all the reasons stated by others.

Maybe we should make regular posts to the Facebook group to encourage those folks to also join here and become Association members as well. They will certainly see the value after joining.

--
Doug Treff
doug at treff.us