response 51 of 90:

Oct 8 16:21 UTC 1999

Remember, you don't have to be a member to donate.  A couple of bucks every now
and then is really appreciated.  You don't get to vote, but you do get a good
feeling from knowing that you've helped.

response 53 of 90:

Oct 8 20:39 UTC 1999

I think depositing a traveller's check is just like depositing a real one,
isn't it?  Someone correct me if I'm wrong.  If it's that easy, there's no
need to wait.

response 55 of 90:

Oct 8 23:10 UTC 1999

I agree with the shpiels about the gift memberships -- Sure, they're welcome,
just not too potent.

re 49, despite the new Picospan slogan, and my phrasing (which I must admit
turned out to be misleading), I wasn't thinking about turning Grex into a
community which lives on advertising, or getting to the point where Mr. CEO
would be ruining Grex. My idea is a single one-to-two line ad in the motd
(running for no longer than like two-three weeks) for something like "Eat at
Gypsi's Shiny Diner (I know there probably isn't a Gypsi's in Michigan; I just
remember a coupla years ago a town in the next county over was trying to fight
the erection of the restaurant.) -- Call 555-8460 for delivery" and charge
like $10-15 for it. A mild annoyance at seeing the motd get even bigger (which
reminds me, someone should redirect motd through a pager for those times when
it exeeds a page) and you don't see it for the remainder of the session.

It should be noted that I'm not trying to advocate this, that I'm just
clarifying my idea, which may not even be neccessary due to Grex's current
budget.

I checked arlo's finger output. So (s)he's Valerie's son/daughter -- how did
this figure in to whenever it was mentioned, and why is his mail being
forwarded to janc and \arlo? What's the \ for anyway?

response 57 of 90:

Oct 8 23:51 UTC 1999

My guess would be that arlo's mail is being forwarded to janc because 
janc is his father.

response 59 of 90:

Oct 9 02:18 UTC 1999

There's a pretty high probability that some members would cease to be
members if grex started accepting advertising...

response 61 of 90:

Oct 9 03:09 UTC 1999

1.  Think of hardware and software, and something that babies do.

1.  The \ character tells it to ignore the forwarding.  So forwarding it to
\arlo puts a copy of the message in Arlo's mailbox.  If it were to forward
to valerie,janc,arlo, without the \, it would deliver copies to valerie and
janc, and a copy to arlo, meaning valerie, janc, and arlo, and again that
instance of arlo would mean valerie, janc, and arlo, and so forth.

Anyhow, about that treasurer's report...

response 63 of 90:

Oct 9 17:12 UTC 1999

Ah, that makes more sense.  I hadn't heard the term before.

response 65 of 90:

Oct 10 03:05 UTC 1999

Oh yeah, that project.  Um, maybe when Arlo learns to program....

response 67 of 90:

Oct 10 03:55 UTC 1999

  I imagine he's already got some simple communication protocols worked out..

response 69 of 90:

Oct 10 21:49 UTC 1999

Though a brand-new wetware unit doesn't have the CPU capacity to run
much more than its BIOS.....

response 71 of 90:

Oct 11 06:38 UTC 1999

(Actually, the \ is unnecessary in "janc, \arlo".  Sendmail is smart
enough to recognize arlo forwarding to arlo, and will send it to arlo's
local mailbox.  Grex used to run smail, which wasn't that smart, and did
need the \ ).

I don't think we want to see grex accept corporate advertising, but grex
has pretty much always received important corporate *donations*, such
as, at various times, building space, internet access, or hardware.  In
some cases, the businesses have wanted or appreciated a mention, in
other cases, they have not cared or not wanted publicity concerning
their donation.  Now that we're a 501c3, I think we're in a better
position to try for such donations, as long as we can find corporate
sponsors who see us as a charity and not an advertising market, I think
we can reasonably make a bigger push for corporate donations.  I think
we want to try mostly for capitals improvements here, though, and not
continuing support -- continuing support generally tends to be a bad
thing in the long run.  (I think one of the reasons freenets died out is
that they did see corporate and governmental sponsorship as a viable
source of continuing support.)

So far as gift memberships go, even with a low rate of continuing
memberships, it's still not the less useful or welcome to grex.  It's
also important, I think, to keep in mind that there is probably *no*
strategy that is going to have both a large magnitude *and* rate of
continuing memberships.  So, we need to think in terms of lots of little
things we can do for grex, rather than one magic bullet that will both
solve all our problems, and allow us to outcompete AOL in terms of
growth and size.

response 73 of 90:

Oct 12 23:50 UTC 1999

Based upon my (admittedly limited) experience listening to radio, the 501c3
stations accept corporate sponsorships and donations, but *NOT*, technically,
advertising.  That aside, I would prefer to see grex get one-time and
equipment donations than continuing sponsorships, except from other charitable
organizations and groups (eg, foundations).