response 50 of 206:

Nov 18 22:15 UTC 1994

It turns out that subscribing to MichNet is very expensive. M-Net 
does, but recently had a review of the costs (in policy cf), and it
appeared that the thinking then was that it was too expensive for
M-Net.

response 52 of 206:

Nov 19 05:21 UTC 1994

        Well, ther is the expenses.. in any case, MCU isn;t necessarily the
godsend you take it to be.

response 54 of 206:

Nov 19 14:13 UTC 1994

I think flyers would be a great idea! I work for kinko's copies, as a delivery
man, and I get 25% off, if you're interested inthat...

response 56 of 206:

Nov 20 23:52 UTC 1994

Fair enough.  I can't debate, have no business acumen, and am
far inferior to the amazing rogue.  Happy?

response 58 of 206:

Nov 21 02:14 UTC 1994

I think the bulk of the grexers who are against using MCU feel that
it is not worth it to sign something we don't believe in, or can't
ensure, in order to get free publicity. I didn't hear anyone suggest
the MCU editor is anything undesirable, only that he/she wants to
restrict advertising to a class of systems that doesn't include Grex,
namely systems that will restrict content in certain ways. We
won't pretend on this issue to be something we're not.

response 60 of 206:

Nov 21 06:21 UTC 1994

Also, has anyone actually suggested PAYING MONEY for advertisement?
I would be totally against that right now! We have plenty of new users 
coming in.  So rogue, I dont think the choice was MCU vs the Ann Arbor News
or some such.  It was MCU vs not MCU.

response 64 of 206:

Nov 23 03:15 UTC 1994

I must say that I did not know Grex had a "gay-lesbo pickup area." My comments
were based on my assumption that there is no such area but might possibly be
on in the *future*. 

response 68 of 206:

Dec 9 00:03 UTC 1994

One of the reasons I became interested in getting involved with the
running of a public access Unix system way back in 1983 was because I
had seen BBS systems run something like the way MCU apparently runs its
listings and I did not like the resulting culture.  I care very much
about freedom of expression, and I do not care much for facism, so I am
glad to see there are plenty of other people who are bothered by MCU's
policies.

If we want to attract more local people, there are certainly plenty of
other ways.  One of the things we might consdier doing after we move, is
installing more phone lines and making some sort of modest local
publicity campaign.  The local media, such as the observer, community
access cable, public radio, etc, often have local "information" sections
and often solicit information about various local events and
organizations.  If we've just moved & added more phone lines, surely
that qualifies as a "newsworthy" event.

We might also want to consider actually spending money on real honest to
godness commercial advertising.  Obviously, commercial national TV is
right out, but a small print ad is not necessarily an expensive
investment.  To take a trivial example: an ad in the classified section
of the observer can be as little as $10.50/mo.  That certainly makes it
an affordable one-time experiment.  If that ad brought in 100 people, 12
of whom stayed, and 2 of whom became members, then that ad would be a
success..

Obviously, our real mission is to provide a service for our members, not
to enrich the coffers of the observer; but certainly part of that
mission is to publicize our presence in the community.  In the past
we've been willing to spend money on postage, paper, & other supplies
for publicity; I don't see any reason why we shouldn't be willing to
consider other forms of publicity as well.

Until now, only techno-nerds had modems.  But that's changing very
rapidly; and at the moment, there is a huge percentage of the modem
public who has just acquired a modem, and will never see MCU.  If we can
find some way to contact an "interesting" slice of that public and let
them know there is an alternative to AOL or Compuserve, I think we will
have done them, and us, a favour.

response 72 of 206:

Jan 18 20:34 UTC 1995

Re: #39 --  in #0, popcorn requested the comments of others.  rogue shared his
experiences and observations, as requested, just as you have.  I fail to see
the reasoning behind blowing off alternative viewpoints.  If you feel you are
right, then WELCOME other suggestions; when you show your solution to be
superior, then your position is strengthened.  If, on the other hand, somebody
else presents an idea that will benefit Grex more, then you have also
benefitted since YOU are a part of Grex.

response 74 of 206:

Feb 2 04:25 UTC 1995

Well,  my first two responses were made only about two weeks after the last
one prior response, which was a question...