The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group
Editorial
Gary Taig
editor@melbpc.org.au

Last month I upset one of our members who claims to be involved in scientific research on global warming. Don, I apologise unreservedly to anyone and everyone in the scientific community who might have misunderstood my not too subtle swipe at the pretenders, or perhaps took my words personally. Any bias on my part would be in the direction of green, not against it. Nobody has put a foot forward yet to do the calculation, or to organise the planting of the trees. The offer stands.

Response to the PC Update survey has been terrific. Hundreds of members providing excellent feedback have restored my faith in human nature. The survey is still open, everyone can still take part, please do.

So far the survey has shown some amazing things, not the least of which is a powerful demand for PC Update to maintain the status quo. "PC Update is already a very good journal and I suggest that you don't throw the baby out with the bath water" typifies the responses. Another finished with "...please don't give in to the lowest common denominator and dumb down the magazine". Worry not! We will not.

When I wrote that I was going to turn PC Update into a magazine designed by the members, I had no intention of turning it over to anyone who might destroy it. Rest easy. As it turns out members have shown an overwhelming desire to see it improved, but not changed.

Here's a brief summary of feedback to date. I will do this in more detail after the survey closes - probably for July PC Update.

When read on its own this is somewhat out of context and you really do need the accompanying notes to get the full picture, but for those who wonder, here it is. I'll be breaking some fundamental rules in this and starting sentences with digits, but space is at a premium. Apologies to the purists.
  • 91 % of respondents always read their PC Update. A further 7% read it most months.

  • 51% rate PC Update as Good. 21% say it could be improved. 19% say it is already excellent. The disenchanted 4% say it needs to be improved a lot.

  • The most popular articles are tutorials containing step by step instructions, followed closely by software reviews and feature articles.

  • A massive 93.1% of respondents want more computing hints `n tips `n tricks. 61.4% want more product reviews (No doubt they'll be happy this month) and 47.4% want more beginners articles.

  • 56.3% want less book reviews, and 25.7% want less SIG reports

  • 45% of respondents would like to see an Experts section introduced, 44.7% would like to see a computer industry news section, 37% would like to see a students section, 25.4% want news of Exec activities, and 24.8% want a section containing lifestyle articles. That should comfort our management; reports of their activities being more desirable than lifestyle articles.

  • As for pages that could be left out, this was fairly predictable. 72.3% ticked "Why you should join", 69.3% nominated the Internet Agreement, and 61.3% say the membership application form could go.
The Why Join and the Membership Application were for the benefit of people who bought PC Update from a newsagency and we wanted them to join the group; the Internet application and agreement was for members who did not have any Internet access. Things are a little different now, of course. When we join the group we are given info about the Internet service, so that can easily be left out.

A while ago I asked the office manager how many members renewed their membership on the form in PC Update and she answered almost none. So, even though I've run the form this month for those who might want to keep it to sign up a friend, clearly there is a lot of discussion needed about whether any of those forms need to run in future, or the frequency they would run.
  • Just over half of the respondents use PC Update to find out what's on at the next monthly meeting. That makes you wonder why some of those don't attend the meeting.

  • Nearly one third of members never discard their PC Update, while about half (50.4%) selected undefined period.

  • About half of our members also buy commercial magazines and the main reason is to find out what new product etc are available.

  • 54.1% rate themselves as Intermediate, while 37.9 are advanced and 5.2% consider themselves to be experts, in terms of their needs.

  • It was interesting to see that 31.9% joined because of the Internet, 21.3% had Internet access before they joined Melb PC and 46.8% of respondents were members before the Internet service began.

  • 70% of members do some shopping out of PC Update - I can't wait to tell the advertisers that news! Maybe it's time to increase the rates.
If you haven't been online yet, please visit the Message of the Day page at Melb PC. In the message Stan Johnstone put up, click on the survey link - you will be taken straight to the first page. It's only 20 questions and is not complicated.

Reprinted from the May 2007 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

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