A few less heated comments, and an offer to Gus
Quote:
Originally posted by gvenditto
I don't have any problems with people saying goodbye but I do have a problem with people using this forum to launch a competitive business.
Now, I won't attack you or come on strong at all. Merely want to point out something from the member's viewpoint.
Problem with that statement above is the fact that these sites aren't really a conventional "business". We don't buy product, or a service. We come here to get or share advise, or viewpoints. In short, to communicate.
Now, take away the people we want to communicate with.
What's left??:(
Also, the core of long-term members know each other. We already have the email addresses from past correspondence. We've got street addresses if we ever traded!! Look back over the forums, you'll see messages like "Where's so-and-so??? Haven't heard from him lately"
So, don't you think we'd start asking & mailing if Scott, Mike, Socal, etc just stopped posting?? We'd have found each other regardless. Heck, I saw one site (Nick's Place) get totally shut off w/o warning. But the MEMBERS got back together via mail & formed another site, which had problems later, so yet another site was formed. And still exists with largely the same crowd.
Would the site survive w/o just Scott?? Most likely yes (Sorry Scott...)
BUT - w/o Scott, Socalgal, Mntsnow, Mark, Joel, RobRich, Daveleau, Fingers, NDC, Doc (Richard Cranium), Caddmannq, Outpatient, Jad1097, Warthog, BBA, pickel, WelshWizard, ... the list goes on & on.
It cannot survive.
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Now, the offer...
Since I feel it's only a matter of time before the site is closed for financial reasons, I'd like to offer to purchase a copy of the forum's database. Say, from Jan 1999 forward. And I bet others would want it also, if it were made available at a reasonable price.
Regarding price, remember that the info already belongs to us, WE created it in the first place!
Should be fairly easy to copy to CD's, and the pages are in html so we can all read them. Of course a searchable index would be nice...;)
Anyway, this is a chance for you to salvage a few bucks out of this mess. Maybe a fair amount if enough members are interested.
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All - please answer the poll but refrain from attacks on Internet.com in this topic.
Maintain diplomacy, please. :)
Collectively, we've got a lot of OUR time invested in the archives. I think it's worth preserving!!
Ed