------=_NextPart_000_005C_01C56233.64BEB0C0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Whatever David says, people DO like history as long as it is=20 approachable, relevant and informative. Like any subject, history=20 is as dull as ditch water if presented in a dull way!=20=20=20 [Whilst I agree that there is a place for this sort of presentation, it rat= her smacks of the 'dumbing down' prevalent in society today, where everythi= ng has to be easily comprehensible to the unintelligent and the uninitiated= . Whilst there is certainly a need for this, I don't think it should take t= he place of traditional publication of academic research. I think that bell= history needs a society and a journal, in the style of historical and arch= aeological journals. These need not be boring - many such journals are far = from boring - but equally they should not be dumbed down. I'm not criticising the type of short articles which can be published in th= e Ringing World - I've written quite a few myself - but I don't think that = the RW offers a wide enough scope. Consider the facts: there is rarely any = funding obtainable to publish bell history research, so the author either p= ublishes it themselves (possibly at a loss), doesn't publish it at all (the= re's quite a lot of unpublished research sitting around - I know), or makes= it available on the internet. The bell historian fraternity has nowhere to= publish lenghthy-ish pieces of research (apart from possibly archaeologica= l journals - e.g. Ranald Clouston's Scottish work, some foundry excavations= , etc), and although the web it used it has not been embraced to the extent= that it might be, and most of what exists consists of surveys of bells wit= hin a particular area put together by an enthusiast interested in that part= icular area. I think that bell historians' reluctance to accept the web as = a means of publication is shown by the lack of interest in web publication = of articles, even when webspace has been offered for them.] David ------=_NextPart_000_005C_01C56233.64BEB0C0 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable