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Grex > Coop11 > #50: Cyberspace Communications, Inc. finances through 11/30/98 |  |
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| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 56 responses total. |
aruba
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response 24 of 56:
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Dec 17 17:06 UTC 1998 |
True, but that can be remedied. How long do people think messages should
last, and how often should they go up?
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steve
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response 25 of 56:
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Dec 17 19:31 UTC 1998 |
They shouldn't show up with any regularity. Randomly would be best,
for one or two days, I'd think.
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mta
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response 26 of 56:
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Dec 17 23:31 UTC 1998 |
I'd like to see a new message every day -- but that's a lot of work. Maybe
it pop[s up for a day, disappears for a week, then anew one pops up?
Variety is the key to getting the message across without causing people to
tune out.
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dpc
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response 27 of 56:
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Dec 18 00:12 UTC 1998 |
By the way, *why* hasn't the reference to ICNet been removed from the
MOTD? It's been several weeks since the service was cut.
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aruba
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response 28 of 56:
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Dec 18 00:23 UTC 1998 |
Re #27: We're waiting for Valerie to notify our donor and ICNET of our
decision to drop the link. Valerie's had other things on her mind lately...
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eieio
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response 29 of 56:
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Dec 18 02:57 UTC 1998 |
Speaking of, isn't "This conference has been restarted" a little dated?
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davel
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response 30 of 56:
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Dec 18 03:42 UTC 1998 |
Heh. Never! It *has* been restarted!!
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mcnally
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response 31 of 56:
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Dec 18 06:51 UTC 1998 |
Am I missing something? What reference to ICNet in the motd?
re #29: It's not dated, it's just in the wrong tense. It's supposed
to be "This conference *will be* restarted"
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davel
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response 32 of 56:
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Dec 18 11:38 UTC 1998 |
Well, when I logged in (this session here), the first thing the motd said was:
> [Internet access provided by ICNet, (734) 998-0090.]
I think they mean *that* reference to ICNet.
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remmers
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response 33 of 56:
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Dec 18 12:47 UTC 1998 |
Re resp:23 through resp:26 - Like I said, I'm volunteering to look
into automating the motd messages, so that they'll be put up on a
regular schedule without a human being having to remember to do it.
I'm an experienced programmer; this would not be a large programming
task.
Frequency, wording, and duration of the messages would be decided
here in Coop, of course. I'd set things up so that these could all
be specified in a configuration file that a non-programmer could
edit. With this approach, the only human labor involved would be
occasional editing of the config file when folks decided they
wanted something changed.
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mta
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response 34 of 56:
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Dec 18 13:50 UTC 1998 |
Well, in that case I'd like to see a large number of "Did you know" statements
rotate in the MOTD so that every day it was different and the cycle didn't
repaeat for at least a month.
Comments like:
Did you know? It takes 50 memberships to pay for Grexes phone bills every
month.
Did you know? The average annual cost of supporting Grex is nncents per user.
Did you know? Your single monthly membership donation covers one phone line
for nn days.
Did you know? It takes n memberships per year to support our internet link.
Did you know? Grexes(85-100) members help us provide services to (27,000
users) world wide every year.
That sort of thing.
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aruba
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response 35 of 56:
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Dec 18 16:07 UTC 1998 |
Did you know that Grex is funded entirely by donations from its users?
Did you know that becoming a Grex member allows you to vote in Grex elections,
and so have a say in Grex's policies?
I'd also add a few ringers, to keep people interested so they don't tune out
as soon as they read "did you know":
Did you know that Mike Nesmith's mother invented White-out?
Did you know that two of the founders of Ann Arbor were named Ann?
That sort of thing. Trivia becomes boring if repeated, though, so they should
be rotated out frequently.
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eieio
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response 36 of 56:
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Dec 18 18:06 UTC 1998 |
I know that Betty Nesmith invented Liquid Paper, but I never heard that she
had anything to do with Wite-Out. To go deeper into the trivia: She got fired
from her day job when she started answering phones as "The Liquid Paper
Company" instead of her actual employer's name, but by that time, she could
afford to ditch her secretarial work.
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keesan
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response 37 of 56:
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Dec 18 20:15 UTC 1998 |
For those of us who cannot remember how to back up after the motd goes
whizzing by, I suggest putting this stuff near the end.
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aruba
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response 38 of 56:
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Dec 18 23:46 UTC 1998 |
(I think Whit-Out and Liquid Paper are different brand names for the same
thing, aren't they? I accept your correction, if that's the company she
started.)
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eieio
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response 39 of 56:
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Dec 19 00:33 UTC 1998 |
I'm not sure what you mean by the question... but I guess that's true, like
Ford and GM are different brand names for the same thing.
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aruba
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response 40 of 56:
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Dec 19 05:11 UTC 1998 |
Yes, that's what I meant.
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rcurl
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response 41 of 56:
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Dec 19 06:30 UTC 1998 |
For the same *catgegory* of things, I would say.
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davel
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response 42 of 56:
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Dec 19 12:26 UTC 1998 |
But this, like ... no, I'd better not offer examples ... is a case where both
trade names are used, by a lot of people, generically to refer to any product
in that category. We have words "car" and "automobile" which are used
generically, and normally if someone says he has a Ford you know does not mean
a car of some other brand. This is *not* the case with Liquid Paper or Wite
Out - though their lawyers would probably like to make it so - at least partly
because there is no commonly-used generic term. (In fact, I for one don't
know even an uncommonly-used generic term, though I imagine I could make one
up.)
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aruba
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response 43 of 56:
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Dec 19 13:30 UTC 1998 |
I suppose "correction fluid" is the generic term. But it's a lot less common
than both brand names.
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dpc
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response 44 of 56:
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Dec 19 17:33 UTC 1998 |
I'm disturbed by the continued presence of the ICNet reference in the
MOTD. Is there some faction of the Board/Staff which just can't *bear*
to delete it? I thought the Board ruled decisively, after considerable
discussion, that the connection was to be cut. Now we have a further
delay, allegedly so that the donor and ICNet can be notified. Why wasn't
this notification done after the Board's decision?
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carson
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response 45 of 56:
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Dec 19 18:08 UTC 1998 |
(limited manpower, maybe? it's not as if there's an announcement for
something that isn't there.)
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scg
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response 46 of 56:
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Dec 19 19:10 UTC 1998 |
Ford to mean car was probably a bad anology. But think back a few years,
before SUV became a common term, when jeep was the common term for such
vehicles.
Of course, now, if you say Jeep, people will assume you are referring to a
particular line of Chri^H^H^H^HDiamlerChrisler products.
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steve
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response 47 of 56:
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Dec 19 19:15 UTC 1998 |
heh
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mta
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response 48 of 56:
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Dec 19 22:43 UTC 1998 |
Why does it bother you so much, Dave?
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