On-line video call with patrons: Saturday 24th Oct.

I have asked you in the past about what sort of software I should use for an on-line meeting with my patrons.  You answered.  Thank you.

The big snag was, you all answered with different answers, and many of you insisted that your way was far and away the best, and that certain other ways, championed by others, were to be avoided at all costs.

My personal experiences with Discord have all been bad - I find it to be easily the least reliable, hardest to use, and most prone to sudden unexplained and unapologised-for crashes.

Skype seems to have fallen out of favour, for some reason.

And so, after a moderate amount of thought, I've plumped for one of the more obscure ones.  It's free.  You don't have to sign up to anything and give them credit-card details and promise them your first-born sons.  It seems to work better  than most, but doubtless someone will have trouble with it.

It's Jitsi.  Some of you will use it already, and for others it will be new.  https://jitsi.org

So, that's the choice of software done, and now the timing.  A weekend seems a good idea, and giving you plenty of notice seems good too.  So, I've picked Saturday 24th October, which should be plenty of notice, and means that those of you with proper jobs will probably be able to find the time even if you live far from Greenwich.

I am trying to move house at the moment, and with my luck that will be the day I'm told I must make the move, but at the moment I'm still at the waiting-for-news stage and so all going well, this should not be a problem, but you may find me surrounded by heavy cardboard boxes.

Having two sessions seems sensible, so that people in different time zones get a fairer chance of a convenient time.  Also, it gives me a break in the middle and a natural time for people to leave and make way for others.

So, I'll do one at 11:00 a.m. BST (the clocks go back to GMT the following day), while those of you in the USA will probably still be asleep after all the wild partying you'll been doing on Friday night.  Then I'll do another at 20:00 BST (8 p.m.) which will be lunchtime for those in the New World.  Each will last at least an hour, but if things are going well at the end of an hour, I'll probably see no reason to stop immediately.

Suggestion welcome.  Are there things I should prepare?  Topics you want covered?

I look forward to (virtually) meeting my generous patrons.

Lloyd