response 76 of 107:

Jul 30 22:06 UTC 2003

Thanks for the sleuthing work, John, but you might as well give it up.
The i\g\n\o\r\a\n\t\ s\lu\t\s\ people who insist that everyone do
things THEIR way, regardless of charitable missions or history or OS
vulnerabilities or echo lag or any other reason for dialing direct,
do not care how many people use the dial-ins.  They knew the number
was much more than one just from the discussion in item 4 long before
this item was entered, but they will not change their tune because of
trifling facts.  It's a religious thing to them, and I'm a heretic.

And I'm proud of it.

(If it wasn't religious, why would anyone argue that the modems were
unimportant when Grex is still paying for the phone lines?  Why should
we leave any costly asset unusable?  Maybe they've bastardized Roman
Catholicism and adopted a doctrine of idle phone wires in lieu of
celibate priests.  "Our DIALINS must be sworn to PURITY!"

Hmmm.  That *would* let them be slutty in the rest of their lives...
what do you bet that their cult has temple prostitutes?)

response 80 of 107:

Jul 31 03:23 UTC 2003

Re 76 - Hahahahaha - It's funny how you imply your the injured party. It seems
everything I've heard about you is true, and that post proves it.

(Of course we knew the number was more than one, we pegged it at 6, or did
you miss that?)

response 82 of 107:

Jul 31 06:47 UTC 2003

What percentage of the total monthly regular cost of grex is the phone
lines?  What percentage of a month's logins are over those phone lines?
What percentage of those modemite logins are users who donate money?

For increased reliability with little or no $US cost savings I betcha
using another ISP's phone bank could easily be done and have the benefit
of reducing the hidden cost of volunteer staff "free" time devoted to
dialup support.

I also suspect that it would be very easy to figure out a per hour
"cost" of modemite use and "bill" them for it. ("cost" being based on
used login time not actual cost - the busier a modem line is the cheaper
per hour).  I betcha there would be enough folk (like mary) willing to
kick in a little extra tax deductible donation to cover the cost of
those modemites who are either unwilling or unable to offer a small
donation themselves to pay their "bill".  Those that value the modemites
could kick in a little extra, some of the otherwise freeloader modemites
might start to contribute, and you could continue to offer current level
of  dialup access at a net zero instead of a constant drain.
Of course you would never shut off accounts that never paid their "bill"
but you might have an item posting the top "noncontributing" modemites
and let peer pressure do the job.

response 84 of 107:

Jul 31 11:01 UTC 2003

The next board meeting will be in September.  For that meeting I'd like to
see, if possible, some recents statistics on our modem usage. 
The timing should be right to then drop lines without any penalties.
Not all, but some - enough to maintain reasonable access for those
who need it. 

Regarding chipping in to subsidize modem access - that's what I do now,
willingly.  I don't pay for my access but rather for whatever it takes to
bring in a diverse group and maintain an interesting community. Take away
that mix and you couldn't pay me to spend time here. 

You'd have to convince me that the people who come to us 
via modem aren't enhancing our community.

Good luck.

response 86 of 107:

Jul 31 15:28 UTC 2003

And the resources be appreciated.

response 88 of 107:

Jul 31 16:08 UTC 2003

Uhm no... 

Just that people respect that staff is on a volunteer basis, and they 
be respectful about their time, and their efforts, and be a little 
polite when requesting something be done. Also keep in mind that 
something may not be fixed as soon as you post something, and not rant 
and rave about it. (I have no idea why that touched a nerve with me, 
but it has, and hopefully this will be my last post about it)

I certainly did not mean the first type of people you mentioned. And 
though I would personally like to "ban" some of the few people with 
the "wrong attitude", I understand that that's not grex's policy. And 
anyhow, that wasn't the intent of my post.

(I can see how there is a slight possibility you might come up with 
that response. By resources, I meant staff resources, not the phone 
lines, or modems. I apologise for the ambiguity)

response 90 of 107:

Jul 31 16:27 UTC 2003

The Centrex contract, right, slynne.  As stated in the first paragraph
of #84, the BoD can look at real numbers in September to make a decision
about how many lines we need.  I'm fairly certain it's more than two, but I
don't have a guess how many more than two we need.

response 92 of 107:

Jul 31 23:00 UTC 2003

Beady you ignorant slut,

The expenses for Grex are posted monthly in the Coop conference.
(Not that allowing the terminal server to stay down would have
any effect on phone expenses, as some have implied!)

================================

Sapna you ignorant slut,

>Hahahahaha - It's funny how you imply your the injured party.

I wasn't the one who turned a technical issue in the system problems
item into a personal attack, nor am I ignoring every issue of fact
that's being brought forth here.  (That's why you're so defensive.)

I also know the definitions of "tongue in cheek" and "hyperbole".

>(Of course we knew the number was more than one, we pegged it at 6, or did
>you miss that?)

Which is already low by a factor of 4 according to jep's analysis, but I
quote this item, response 41:

# ... it's not worth a VOLUNTEER'S time to race down there to check on
# a modem for ONE person who refuses to move into the late 90's.

However, since you disclaim the number of one, one wonders why you
took that response as referring to you.  Apparently, the talk about
you being self-centered and having to be the focus of attention is true.

Are you the high priestess of the Temple of the Idle Phone Line, or
just an underling?  How any "clients" do you have on a typical day?

response 94 of 107:

Aug 1 00:53 UTC 2003

Forget it russ. I don't think it's worth anyone's time arguing with you.
You're totally skewed in your perceptions. Go ahead, make demands of people
all you want, call them names. Doesn't really affect me one way or another.

Have a good life. Or whatever you have left of it.

response 96 of 107:

Aug 1 04:05 UTC 2003

Um. uh-huh.

I'm not advocating eliminating or even cutting back on the number of
modems.  I'm just suggesting gathering real data upon which to act and
pointing out there are alternatives to the current structure of things.
Personally, I can't envision ever even using the modems so how many
there are don't make me no nevermind.   

response 98 of 107:

Aug 1 14:42 UTC 2003

They're call "net-friends" or "cyber-friends". "Grex-friends" is what 
I use when referring to people I've interacted with on Grex