response 30 of 91:

Dec 2 03:46 UTC 1999

Moreover, the experience, qualifications, and expertise of many of the staff
on here is nothing short of outstanding.  People tend to overlook this,
especially if they're not technically literate.

response 32 of 91:

Dec 2 04:30 UTC 1999

Well, intellectual exchange was and is one Grex's aims, not specifically role
playing.

And, technical expertise is not rare, I agree.  But, on a system where staff
is made entirely of volunteers, you will be very hard pressed to find such
an exceptional team of co-staffers.

response 34 of 91:

Dec 2 22:33 UTC 1999

Several comments:

 I agree that expanding our web interfaces is a good idea.  Things I'd
 be interested in include:

   - Improved interface to conferences - Backtalk still has clunky
     aspects.

   - Web version of tel/talk/write, including "write help".  I think it
     would be neat if, while reading the conferences you could have
     a little window at the bottom of your browser screen where messages
     from other Grex users could pop up.  You could also type and send
     messages here.  This would give a great sense of being "on Grex"
     while reading through the web, and would let people ask for help
     in a spontaneous way, and get instant replies.

   - Web interface party.  Sure, why not?

 I'm not very interested in web interfaces to mail.  If you are coming
 in over the web, you can get email elsewhere.  If you are coming in
 over the dial-ins, such an interface would be of no use.  And it
 wouldn't particularly help draw web users into the Grex community.

 Grex's goals are quite clearly written up in several places.  One
 of them is our 501(c)3 application.  See
      http://www.cyberspace.org/local/grex/501c3.html
 Charity is definitely one of our purposes in life.  Making net services
 available to people who could not otherwise afford them is a big part
 of our mission.  The other is education, in a rather broad sense that
 has more to do with encouraging people to talk to each other than with
 lecturing to them.  Of course, we do an awful lot of just plain
 socializing, which we aren't at all ashamed of. Just chatting with
 with people can be educational in itself (eg, teens often find Grex
 one of the first places they can interact with adults on an equal
 footing).  And even when it isn't terribly educational, it is fun and
 helps build the sense of community that inspires people to donate time
 and money to us, thus enabling us to do good things.

 Yes we should drop dial-ins as they fall out of use.  But I don't
 think we should be thinking of completely eliminating them anytime
 soon.  We will continue to have dial-in users for a long time.  Grex's
 "free second-rate ISP" role isn't going to be obsoleted very fast.

 There are lots of things that are similar to Grex out on the web.
 There isn't much that is the same.  I'm not sure either fact is a big
 deal.  What we are doing works for a lot of people, so we are on to
 something good.  Does being unique make it better, or are we so good
 that more people should be trying to emulate us?  I don't know.  I
 think if you try to strive to be unique, you are likely to end up just
 being silly.  We need to strive to be good.

 Growth is also a tough issue.  In many ways it is nice to be small.
 But I feel like I want Grex to be as good as it can be.  Growth is
 a likely consequence of that, even if it isn't necessarily my goal.

 The ideal outcome from my point of view would be if Grex were so good
 that lots of people all over the world started similar systems.  That
 way Grex wouldn't be getting huge.  Having local focus a strong part
 of our goal makes that make more sense.

response 36 of 91:

Dec 3 00:55 UTC 1999

the local focus is a result of the interests of the users.  the users are
primarily local (of the conferences anyway, and it's hard to imagine that any
other part of the system can be characterized as even having a focus in that
way.)

response 38 of 91:

Dec 4 18:58 UTC 1999

I'd say that coop more than other cf's has a local focus, since grex board
and staff have to be local, and tend to make a strong contribution to coop.

response 40 of 91:

Dec 4 19:46 UTC 1999

        How do we get out the word that conferences are like newgroups
except that the subjects are better organized and hang around for years,
not weeks?

response 42 of 91:

Dec 6 00:02 UTC 1999

Re #40: If grex became as well-known as usenet, it would probably start sucking
as much as usenet.

Overall, I have to say `if it ain't broke, don't fix it'.  Grex does a number
of things well.  I like the fact that I'm using a telnet connection for this
conferencing.  There are probably enough web-only-conferencing systems out
there besides grex anyway.

The fact that grex has essentially the same amount of bandwidth to the internet
as my home does, and grex manages to serve as many people as it does, is
quite impressive.

response 44 of 91:

Dec 6 23:15 UTC 1999

Re #43: I thought POP was a TCP/IP service; how would it work over a
straight dial-in?

response 46 of 91:

Dec 7 11:13 UTC 1999

        "local PPP on dialups" meaning..? Acting as a small "isp"?

response 48 of 91:

Dec 7 19:10 UTC 1999

uhhhhmm.. Is there a point to that sort of setup?

response 50 of 91:

Dec 7 21:50 UTC 1999

for people who want to download mail and get offline to read it, or for people
who prefer the comfort of a graphical interface for conferencing to a command
line.  it would be interesting to permit outgoing telnet (since we do anyway).

response 52 of 91:

Dec 7 21:55 UTC 1999

        I'm sorry, I guess you lost me...

        If they are "comfortable" with that sort of interface, it seems to
        me this implies they already have net-access of some sort.

        It sounds like a band-aid on something, but I'm not sure (nor
        would I want to hazard a guess) on what.