Sent An Article And Got No Reply

"majority of philatelic organizations are staffed........who don't believe in the internet........" And, "there seems to be a strong resistance to technical volunteering......."

I hesitate in making such blanker statements myself. To name just three examples out of my "stable" of philatelic societies, MEPSI, Polonus, ISWSC, all three have very good web sites. With a 4th one, the ISPP, where I submitted the two articles which were published in Portu-Info, I got replies back both times within several business days after making the article inquiries.

Steve,
I took a look at just one of the sites you mentioned, the MEPSI site.

The design is very dated and it is not designed to today's standards. Since it is not mobile friendly approximately 50% of the users who go there will leave in less than 20 seconds. Here is Google's analysis of the site


Just a few more issues noted after a quick look; the site has 3-4 broken images on the opening page, they do not have a 'contact us' form, their membership page is assembled in a strange way with an online form but a separate PayPal button.

This is exactly the kind of group that I previously have approached. While I never approached these particular folks, I did this with at least 10-12 other organizations which I felt needed help. My offers were to not only redesign their site for them but also train/teach anyone they might want to maintain the site moving forward. Virtually every time I either got no response or a 'go away we are fine' response.

My perspective is from a technical standpoint, and when I see a site like this it is clear to me that they do not have the resources (or vision) needed to be a good online presence in 2019.

So while you might be hesitant in saying that there is strong resistance to technical volunteering I am not.
Don

Doesn't bother me as I still work with an iPhone3, at least for a while.

Forgot that I have that Google mobile friendly analysis link somewhere in my bookmarks. Will have to hunt it.

Some of the board will be at SESCAL in early October while I'm there for another Society meeting. Should see at least a couple and will ask about this.

I only know of one philatelic discussion group that is mobile friendly.

Al,
The point I was trying to make is that a significant number of philatelic organizations need help with their sites and either do not think they need help or are not willing to accept help. I think you have had some experience with offering help, were your offers to help welcomed?
Don

There is a lot of underutilized talent. It is a challenge and think many do not want help for fear of losing control. You do not assign an internet contact point if the contact point is not responsive but them some do not think responsiveness is important.

Amazon succeeds with responsiveness.

It is being published in the CCP of the CCNY and not in the LP of the RPSL.

The RPSL is relocating to a new location this summer, and, as a result, they have had all of their stuff packed up, I think all summer.

They indicate on their website that book orders will be delayed and so on.

A gentle reminder that acronyms such as MEPSI, ISWSC, CCP, CCNY, LP and RPSL mean nothing to the majority of readers here.

Where I work we are heavy on acronyms; so many that even management doesn't know the meanings of all of them. Communications to management (and other documents) are supposed to include the meaning with the first use of an acronym (unless its pretty obvious, like "US" for example).

Perhaps this should be a rule for SCF?

Robert

RE: use of acronyms

This falls under the existing 'No IM lingo' rule.

But I have also added this to Forum Etiquette 'sticky' post here
https://goscf.com/t/57974#topichome

Don

RTFM or FOAD! Wait... what?

John Becker makes good points. It is a time consumer to type out long names, but here is mine.......

MEPSI = Mexico Elmhurst Philatelic Society International
ISPP = International Society for Portuguese Philately
ISWSC = International Society for Worldwide Stamp Collecting

I'll note that I no longer collect world wide, but belong to the ISWSC to get access to their web site resources.

CCP = Collectors Club Philatelist
CCNY = Collectors Club New York

LP = London Philatelist
RPSL = Royal Philatelic Society London

Is it possible your submissions ended up in a spam folder? It's happened to me, both sending and receiving. Nowadays email is mainly a tool for advertising.