Proposal: the Grex Bumper Sticker

Sep 25 18:49 UTC 1997

Back in July, while we were commuting to MSU, Steve Andre and I had 
a flash of inspiration:  imagine a couple dozen cars driving around 
Ann Arbor, and other places, with bumper stickers which read:
 
    www.cyberspace.org

I didn't know a thing about how bumper stickers get made.
But politicians use bumper stickers, so I asked Larry Kestenbaum, 
who responded:

>I always thought the best and cheapest place to have bumper stickers made
>was/is Stanley Sawicki & Son in Detroit.
>...
>Their number is 313 962 2725.  They said for 500 vinyl stickers (i.e. not
>the cheap paper kind that fades and never comes off), one color on white
>(which could be the background, of course), standard size, would be $175
>plus tax.  She didn't mention it, but I think it costs a little more if
>they have to do the design.  If you do camera-ready copy, it should be
>very high-rez and as close to full size as possible, because laddering
>will show up in the vinyl.
>...
>
>Good quality is key to having credible looking stickers.

I put this idea on hold until the ISDN connection was ready to go up,
so that folks webbing to Grex should see decent response time.
 
Here are some questions which need to be resolved:

1)  sticker design -- typeface, color, and who's going to prepare the 
    master?    My vision is of white letters on a blue background.

    Also, perhaps we should advertise www.grex.org instead?

2)  Financing.   I am willing to donate $50 to this project, and I'm 
    willing to front some additional money to be repaid out of the 
    sale of stickers.  Steve suggested that stickers be priced at 
    $1 each.
 
    I think the publicity impact here is more important than 
    trying to make some money on the sale of stickers; I imagine that 
    after the initial burst of sales of maybe 100-150 stickers, 
    that we would have stock available in the Grex store for the rest 
    of time.  
 
I'm willing to lead on this, or I can hand it off to the publicity
committee.  Whatever makes people happy and motivated sticker-displayers.

response 2 of 165:

Sep 25 19:36 UTC 1997

I'll also fund $1 per new 3-month + membership (or a year or more 
renewal) for a free bumpersticker to be included in membership from the 
the time the stickers become available for 30 days.

response 4 of 165:

Sep 25 22:05 UTC 1997

but the bumper sticker should say "www.GREX.cyberpace.org"...after all
you cant just advertise the address and not the name!  You'd hurt
grex's feelings and it might crash a few extra times in protest!

response 6 of 165:

Sep 26 01:20 UTC 1997

Ah.  I wasn't aware of that.
FWIW, can I get mail at orinoco@grex.org, or just orinoco@cyberspace.org?

response 8 of 165:

Sep 26 02:44 UTC 1997

The question is, should we advertise ourself to the driving public as:
 
     www.cyberspace.org
            
             or
 
        www.grex.org
              ?
 
The cyberspace name is an asset...
grex is who we are...
 
I don't think we have ever really thought about marketing our 
web address before.

response 10 of 165:

Sep 26 10:56 UTC 1997

On the other hand, www.grex.org will print so much larger...

response 12 of 165:

Sep 26 13:41 UTC 1997

   Given that two people are willing to front a little more than half the
cost of this venture, I think the board should put up the other $75.
I think we should most likely use the cybersapce.org domain; we
grabbed grex.org more for safekeeping, as I saw it at the time
when we forked over money at a board meeting to raise cash for that.

response 16 of 165:

Sep 27 00:33 UTC 1997

I would be happy to do the artwork if Rob is not available. 
I support this completely and agree that www.cyberspace.org is the best 
choice.

response 18 of 165:

Sep 27 02:56 UTC 1997

Re 6: Yes, you can get mail sent to @grex.org, @cyberspace.org,
 @grex.cyberspace.org, and several other names which all point to the same
machine.

response 20 of 165:

Sep 27 04:39 UTC 1997

   I agree.  "cyberspace.org" is a neat sounding domain, and its really
the one we are, I think.  I see grex.org as more of a technical kludge
to prevent other problems.

response 22 of 165:

Sep 27 12:40 UTC 1997

Which one are you more likely to be able to *remember* at a distance, Scott?