Grex Publicity Conference

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Grex Publicity Item 25: Free world-wide publicity for Grex?
Entered by carl on Tue Mar 22 23:45:50 UTC 1994:

Scott Yanoff logged in here a few days ago.  He is the guy that
maintains the "List of Special Internet Connections."  It's better
known as "Yanoff's List."

One thing we could do to get instant world-wide publicity is to
ask him to put Grex on his list.  Especially if we can *very briefly*
describe what distinguishes us on the Internet.

I'd be glad to mail him, or Misti could as publicity person.

What could we say about Grex in 60 spaces or less?

21 responses total.

#1 of 21 by remmers on Wed Mar 23 01:31:06 1994:

Grex:  Ann Arbor's shining beacon on the internet.

#2 of 21 by rcurl on Wed Mar 23 04:32:31 1994:

PDIAL is a worldwide list of internet access providers, a category
which grex has joined. You can read the current PDIAL in /u/rcurl/PDIAL.list
(this has also been linked into the !lynx hypertext stack). Here is a
typical - and local - listing in PDIAL:

<< MSen >>
name ----------> MSen
dialup --------> contact for number
area codes ----> 313, 810
local access --> All of SE Michigan (313, 810)
long distance -> provided by user
services ------> shell, WAIS, gopher, telnet, ftp, SLIP, PPP, IRC, WWW,
                 Picospan BBS, ftp space
fees ----------> $20/month; $20 startup
email ---------> info@msen.com
voice ---------> 313-998-4562
fax -----------> 313-998-4563
ftp more info -> ftp.msen.com:/pub/vendor/msen 

I am now receiving a subscription to PDIAL, and will maintain PDIAL.list.
I've also requested their questionnaire for being listed, and will be back
with that when it arrives. 

I think that grex is currently the world's cheapest internet access
provider, at $60 per year, though we don't have all the services of
many.

PDIAL is being discussed also in Internet, item for "access to grex".

#3 of 21 by popcorn on Wed Mar 23 13:46:33 1994:

This response has been erased.

#4 of 21 by rcurl on Wed Mar 23 14:20:05 1994:

That may be the principle, but the world will look upon us as a $6/mo
ticket to the internet - until they get to know us jolly folk, of course.

#5 of 21 by popcorn on Wed Mar 23 14:39:58 1994:

This response has been erased.

#6 of 21 by rcurl on Wed Mar 23 14:53:33 1994:

We could put in a PDIAL listing that we are unreliable ;->. However,
from everything I've heard, including the straw vote at the board
meeting, grex members think that the internet link is a GOOD THING,
and they are willing to support it with money and time. Therefore I
think that internet access is to become as much a part of grex as any
of its other services. However, you are making a very important
point - for grex to remain a non-profit, charitable, public-access,
conferencing system, conferencing has to be emphasized, and the
internet link viewed as an adjunct to conferencing. From that standpoint,
there is no good reason to have grex listed worldwide as a "provider".

#7 of 21 by chelsea on Wed Mar 23 19:57:32 1994:

From what little I've read of the different 501 categories, once
we start charging members for premium services (read restricting
access to only those who pay up-front) we are already looking
more like a social club (another non-profit category) than an
educational outfit.  I'm going on record here of saying this
policy might severely cripple Grex's attempt to get 501(c)(3) status.

And if anyone agrees with this but hopes that the rules could be
changed just prior sending in the application, think again.  This
concern is documented, clearly, before formal action was taken.

#8 of 21 by carl on Wed Mar 23 23:15:27 1994:

Going back to the original topic:  Would it be a good idea to ask
Scott to put Grex on his list?

If so, I think it would be a good idea to present Grex as a conferencing
system and not even mention internet access.

#9 of 21 by davel on Thu Mar 24 02:46:37 1994:

I think I agree.  If nothing else, that's a list intended for people to
access through the net, right?  So there's no obvious reason that we should
encourage people to think of us as a place to telnet in to for the purpose
of telnetting out again - instead, what we have to offer people who already
have net access is a public access Unix system and the bbs.  IMO, anyway.

#10 of 21 by rcurl on Thu Mar 24 05:53:39 1994:

Re #7, and the relation between any of this and possible 501(c)3 exempt
status: this will be discussed in the 501(c)3 item. One point is that
permitting only members outgoing internet access will have no negative
effect on our 501(c)3 eligibility.

#11 of 21 by davel on Thu Mar 24 11:37:01 1994:

Well, there's the point you raised in coop, Rane: value of outgoing
internet service (apportioned cost, in this case - not a trivial problem)
would have to be deducted from membership income in figuring our sources
of income for this purpose, right?  (But the *added* cost of allowing
outbound telnet, over and above inbound telnet, mail, news, etc., is
little if any.  Hmm.)

#12 of 21 by danr on Fri Mar 25 01:41:41 1994:

re #8:  I think we *should* get Grex on the list.  And I think you have
the right idea about emphasizing the conferencing.  I don't have a catchy
slogan on the tip of my tongue but give me a day or two.

#13 of 21 by carl on Sun Apr 3 16:29:45 1994:

I just mailed Scott asking that he include us on the list as a
public-access conferencing system.  I gave him two addresses:
telnet cyberspace.org and http://www.cyberspace.org.

Hopefully we'll be in the next edition!

#14 of 21 by rcurl on Sun Apr 3 19:26:09 1994:

Should grex get onto the netfind list? Netfind is somewhat lame - I
couldn't even find myself in Ann Arbor, ostensibly because the hosts
I'd be in weren't accepting finger. But it ought to improve. I listed
all of Ann Arbor's internet hosts (a hundred or so), but no cyberspace.org.

#15 of 21 by mta on Wed Apr 13 03:24:38 1994:

How about : GREX, a cozy community along the byways of cyberspace" as
a catchy slogan?  (It's a current fave of mine.)

Anyway, as long as we emphasize the conferencing it's not a really
bad idea to get on these lists, I thingk.  It might be good, ythough,
to hold off until we have the move complete and phone lines are stable
and we maybe have a few more bits of disk...then again maybe not.

#16 of 21 by rcurl on Wed Apr 13 05:18:18 1994:

(Drift on:) the string     I thing^?k.   in #15 has  ^? in reverse
video, though my copy of it doesn't. That's the second time tonight.
What gives? (Drift off:)

#17 of 21 by popcorn on Wed Apr 13 11:07:53 1994:

This response has been erased.

#18 of 21 by davel on Wed Apr 13 14:35:24 1994:

(I think that's the pager's fault, Valerie.  There is indeed a control-?
(that's a DEL character, I think) in the response, & I believe that more
is causing it to do a backspace.  Rane typed ^ followed by ?, so it
echoed that way.  (I suspect that someone has del set to ^h but emulator
is generating ^? - why Rane's pager or emulator makes it do reverse video
I'm not sure, unless on the theory that overtyping indicates emphasis.))

#19 of 21 by popcorn on Thu Apr 14 02:26:10 1994:

This response has been erased.

#20 of 21 by popcorn on Thu Apr 14 02:27:00 1994:

This response has been erased.

#21 of 21 by rcurl on Thu Apr 14 07:57:09 1994:

I took the scarp of reverse video to have been caused by line noise in
#15, as there was no reason to intentionally enter ansi for reverse
video (if I could even have seen that).  By "my copy of" I meant
that I did a highlight and copy (Mac), and then pasted it into my
response. The reverse video did not copy. I was talking about my
scrollback buffer, which also cancelled the rev video.

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