response 11 of 35:

Jan 30 05:47 UTC 2013

re resp:7: I'd like to see the ideas he mentioned, and his thoughts on
how he would implement them.  I'd like to see anyone's ideas.

Dan, I appreciate your comments of support for my idea and for me as a
contributor to the Board.  I'll do the best I can for Grex if I am elected.

I am just about solely concerned with conferencing. I don't pay a lot of
attention to other activity.  I will become aware of it before pushing
for things that will affect it.  Is there much activity by users other
than BBSers which would be affected by a merger?  Do you have any
concerns about that? 

response 13 of 35:

Jan 31 04:50 UTC 2013

Okay.  Go convince Arbornet to do that.

I came here, to Grex, because it's Grex's time for an election and so
that's where I started.  It doesn't really matter to me where the effort
is started.  I don't think it's going to be a quick thing anyway.  While
I'd like it to happen in a few months, a year or two years seems more
realistic to me.

Over on M-Net, they are practically up in arms against the idea right
now.  It doesn't bother me.  I've made all the same points there that
I've made here.  I can wait until they calm down and think things over,
then pitch it again.

I can also face failure in this election here on Grex.  Merging is an
idea, a new idea at that.  If people think it's a terrible idea, they'll
defeat it, and vote against me.  I can pitch it here again, too.  Maybe
if it doesn't fly now, it'll get easier after people think about it for
a year or two.  

response 15 of 35:

Jan 31 06:13 UTC 2013

re #12
 How about Arbnornet is dissolved & M-Net absorbed into Cyberspace, Inc.?
 No reason why it can't go the other way as far as I know.

Only if the Grex board promises to continue censoring items.

response 17 of 35:

Jan 31 18:53 UTC 2013

 If Arbornet is not in favor of this so-called merger and is not willing
 or able to manage the assets it acquires, then I don't see how this is
 going to turn out as anything but bad for Grex/Cyberspace Inc.

That's what has me so curious as to why jep makes a platform of the idea
Seems to me that fiduciary administration has been lacking and is a bigger
concern...bank, po box, paypal, members logs, all of that jazz are 
out of whack at Arbornet.  It was flat out dumped by the 2007 board.
Not good for a 501c3's health, imo

response 19 of 35:

Feb 2 14:22 UTC 2013

I think that the percentage of people who care about this vis-a-vis
the total user populations of either Arbornet (read: M-Net) or
Cyberspace (read: Grex) is vanishingly small.  The people who care
about the respective "culture" of either is also vanishingly small
when taken as a percentage of total users.

Most users come here for access to Unix and network resources; they
have no desire -- at all -- to participate in the "community."  My
informal estimate is that >half of the revenue that was taken in
this past year was for increased access level, not for membership
in the "community."  The vast, vast majority of users could care
less whether they're using one machine or the other.

Maybe JEP's idea is a bad one.  But I think that most of the people
who care really don't know what they are caring about.  If everything
were run on the same physical machine, most wouldn't notice.  In
fact, some folks have suggested running Grex on a virtual hosting
provider; suppose that M-Net did the same and the two ended up on
the same physical computer.  Would anyone care?  Would anyone notice?
Would anyone even know to notice?

In short: none of this matters.  People who speak of "preserving
Grex" or "preserving M-Net" are entirely missing the point: there's
nothing to preserve.  The toxic nature of these communities killed
themselves off years ago, what's left is the same dozen or so people
writing the same things to each other again and again.

I say put them on the same machine, officially deprecate the
conferencing function, and work on getting new hacker blood involved;
align with the maker movement and see what sort of interesting
things people want to use Grex to build.  Anything else is just a
distraction.

response 21 of 35:

Feb 4 20:36 UTC 2013

Dan, you're boring jep.  

response 23 of 35:

Feb 5 04:45 UTC 2013

re #22
I made my decision and voted.  I think everyone has made up their mind.

response 25 of 35:

Feb 11 03:20 UTC 2013

Nine people voted for the open Board of Directors seat.  How many were
from outside the conferencing system?  In what way did they care about that?

I don't know how to reach those people.  I don't know how to communicate
with them about the things they care about, and the things I care about.
 I don't have anything against them, but I don't know any way to receive
information about their concerns than to speculate in a void, which I
decline to do.

Deprecate the conferencing system?  To what end?  In what way?  Do you
mean to turn control of Grex over to them?  How is that going to work?

It is what I care about.  It is what the people I know care about.  

response 27 of 35:

Feb 14 21:43 UTC 2013

resp:25 I don't know.  But I think that Joe Gelinas said how many were not
members.

response 29 of 35:

Feb 15 14:58 UTC 2013

resp:28 The information is there, I just don't have it to hand.  Nor am I
the definitive source.

response 31 of 35:

Feb 15 17:57 UTC 2013

TS, can you enter a new item to discuss your ideas?  It'd make it easier 
than sending everyone to another item when you're not sure what the item 
number is.  Anyway, then there'd be a separate item, not one started for 
something else.

response 33 of 35:

Feb 17 23:26 UTC 2013

  
re 31 .. ummm, thought the point er to 48 was a separate item .... ?