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Grex > Coop > #278: Grex Town Hall -- How do we move forward? |  |
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| 25 new of 357 responses total. |
richard
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response 80 of 357:
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Jun 22 05:22 UTC 2010 |
tonster I think graphics were left disabled when backtalk was installed
due to bandwidth concerns.
It would be nice to for instance be able to embed a link to some cool
youtube clip in an item rather than just pasting a url.
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tonster
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response 81 of 357:
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Jun 22 05:28 UTC 2010 |
bandwidth concerns? was grex on dialup at the time or something? almost
all images I would imagine would be hosted offsite (like embedded links
to youtube videos), so that seems odd to me. I would certainly hope we
weren't concerned about that at provide.
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mary
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response 82 of 357:
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Jun 22 10:56 UTC 2010 |
Our volunteer staff are not paid politicians. So, feel free to dump on
'em all you want but don't be surprised when they don't come back for
more. It's happened with staff and we're well on our way to having it
happen with the remainder of our volunteers.
To be frank - we've got our share of selfish people here with a sense of
entitlement. They are not interested in being team players, in give and
take, in being constructive and volunteering to help. Mostly, they're
just sitting back and waiting for someone (else) to turn off the lights.
Sad.
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mary
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response 83 of 357:
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Jun 22 11:03 UTC 2010 |
Would there be any interest in discussing a second Grex? I'm suggesting a
system in the cloud, on different software, with a whole different look
and rules that look nothing like what we have now. Cyberspace Inc. would
administrate this system and pay the hosting fee. The board would call
the shots on how it looks and acts getting input from the users. This
would be a place for discussions - no hardware or software futzing, no
attached email, no linked party, etc.
Radical for us? You bet. Too little too late? Maybe. Worth the try?
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kentn
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response 84 of 357:
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Jun 22 12:36 UTC 2010 |
Re 83: It seems to me we have two "camps" on Grex: those who want the
system to retain its "retro" feel (text conferencing, command line,
etc.) and those who want to see Grex modernize the interfaces to the
conferences and add more features, perhaps add blogging and other
applications that a lot of people expect of a more modern system.
Both groups have valid preferences. And this may be why we do not have
a consensus about what Grex should do.
Having a second system would mean trying something to see how it works
in practice rather than arguing ideas to death and doing nothing new. I
kind of like that idea, if we can't try new ideas on this system without
objections.
But it would also mean splitting our attention in terms of finances and
staff resources. Though who knows? Maybe a newer system would interest
some staff more than this one? Certainly staff interest in maintaining
the system is important.
What do others think?
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lar
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response 85 of 357:
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Jun 22 13:17 UTC 2010 |
I think you don't have enough users for one system,,,much less two
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kentn
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response 86 of 357:
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Jun 22 13:29 UTC 2010 |
The idea is to attract new users.
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lar
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response 87 of 357:
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Jun 22 13:35 UTC 2010 |
and a second system would compete with facebook,myspace and the host of
other social networking sites...how?
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mary
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response 88 of 357:
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Jun 22 13:44 UTC 2010 |
We wouldn't be trying to compete. Think of this as an experiment. We'd
kind of make it up as we go along. Sounds like a fun to me.
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tonster
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response 89 of 357:
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Jun 22 13:45 UTC 2010 |
resp:83;resp:84: What are we paying provide now to host grex?
resp:87: it's a valid question.
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lar
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response 90 of 357:
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Jun 22 13:52 UTC 2010 |
"Sounds like a fun to me."
Sounds like work to me...who is going to do it and how much money are
you willing to invest in the experiment?
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mary
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response 91 of 357:
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Jun 22 14:04 UTC 2010 |
I'll certainly help and would be willing to chip-in for start-up costs.
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lar
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response 92 of 357:
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Jun 22 14:09 UTC 2010 |
i'm broke because I gave all of my money to precious m-net
<raspy golem voice>
"ohhhh my precioussssss"
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slynne
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response 93 of 357:
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Jun 22 14:32 UTC 2010 |
I think that is a good idea, mary. I would certainly be willing to
participate and contribute towards such a project.
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lar
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response 94 of 357:
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Jun 22 14:40 UTC 2010 |
shut the fuck up...you were just whining about bills and housing
projects as the reason you haven't paid member dues.
Just what the FUCK are you willing to contribute?
Your profound wisdom and knowledge?
LOL!
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kentn
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response 95 of 357:
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Jun 22 15:03 UTC 2010 |
Participation and contributions may be made in other than monetary
ways. Indeed, we need participation and the efforts of volunteers
to make the system work, so I think it's great that Lynne would be
willing to help.
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lar
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response 96 of 357:
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Jun 22 15:10 UTC 2010 |
in light of her previous posts about being a BOD member and her
financial situition..just what is she supposed to "contribute"
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kentn
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response 97 of 357:
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Jun 22 15:31 UTC 2010 |
Ideas, knowledge, history of Grex, comments on how to improve the
system, etc. We don't know, but if there are tasks that need
doing, she might be able to help. How about reviewing the Grex
web pages and pointing out where they need improvement or have
non-working links? Something like that just takes time and the
ability to use a web browser.
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slynne
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response 98 of 357:
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Jun 22 17:01 UTC 2010 |
resp:96 Money wise, I can contribute money. My earlier point was not
that I don't have money to contribute but that when it seems like grex
has lots of money, it falls down the priority ladder such that I might
choose other ways to spend my money.
But I am also willing to put in some time towards a project of setting
up a bbs out in the cloud. Mary has been suggesting that for a long time
and I think it is a good enough suggestion that I am willing to donate
some time to it.
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kentn
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response 99 of 357:
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Jun 22 17:53 UTC 2010 |
Money works, too. We need the participation as a member though, which
is why adjusting the cost of membership might make sense. My point is
that there are ways to participate and contribute, even if you aren't a
computer programmer or system administrator. Anything that makes the
system a better place to visit is much appreciated.
We used to have "helpers" who would help new users. That seems to
have gone by the wayside (as the number of users dropped). Even being
reasonable in the conferences is a big help. At one point I had
permission to install Figlet fonts in the font directory. That was just
a matter of checking the files, copying them to the right place, and
letting people know they were there. There are some new Figlet fonts
out there since the last time I added one.
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richard
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response 100 of 357:
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Jun 22 21:29 UTC 2010 |
IFRC the term/idea 'nextgrex' has been tossed around in the past. I
guess the idea of a Grex 2.0 or new version is something worth
considering. It falls in line my previously mentioned suggestions
about Grex moving to be more or completely web interactive. I don't
think Grex needs email anymore or to offer file storage.
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mary
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response 101 of 357:
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Jun 22 22:29 UTC 2010 |
Email, file storage, unix tools, party and Grex conferencing wouldn't be
part of any change I'm suggesting. Everything you know and love about
Grex stays the same.
What I am suggesting is fairly radical for us. We'll look around and
find conferencing software that is (at a minimum) able to thread
discussion, remember what a user has read, and allow a user to forget
threads. It should give administrators control over who is able to read
content and, secondarily, who can respond in discussions. It would be
nice to have control over whether the content is indexed or search
engine isolated. Administrators should have the tools to remove content
and there should be a switch that would allow/disallow contributors to
edit their own words.
And all of this should be easy enough to do that a non-techie could
moderate. The administrators would be the Board, initially. Maybe
forever.
I'd suggest the Board make all the decisions on this system after
gathering input from Grex users. No democracy. No formal voting
process. They would use their best judgement and be willing to see what
works and what doesn't and make changes as needed.
It would be an experiment. I have no idea how it would go but I'd love
to see it tried.
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mary
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response 102 of 357:
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Jun 22 22:40 UTC 2010 |
Not obvious in the above is that I'd hope this would NOT be on hardware
owned by Cyberspace Communications. It should be somewhere affordable,
where we'd have a contract for service and the expectation of a reasonably
fast connection and reliable uptime.
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kentn
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response 103 of 357:
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Jun 22 22:48 UTC 2010 |
As far as e-mail, the Board did discuss this and essentially agrees
except that users may need to send e-mail to staff on the system. If
we had a way to do that and not have outside e-mail we'd probably shut
off outside mail in a heartbeat. But from what I heard at the meeting,
sendmail doesn't set up quite like that--it wants to send e-mail off
site if it's addressed that way. Perhaps with some tricky set up it
could be made to work, but it sounds to me like the main issue is
technical not a lack of wanting to do it.
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kentn
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response 104 of 357:
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Jun 22 23:07 UTC 2010 |
Good organizations do experiment. It's how they discover new ways of
doing things when they are on the downswing. Doing what you've always
done when it clearly isn't working is a recipe for reaching oblivion
sooner rather than later. One caveat though is not to stray too far from
your core strengths and don't get hung up on fads. I don't think we'll
give up on communication and conferencing, for example, because that's
in our mission.
Not every experiment will be successful, but if we learn from what we
try, whether it worked or not, we may be able to pull out of this tail
spin. The other thing to remember about trying new things is that
if they don't work, quite often you can back out the change and go
back to what you had before (for example, if it is computer software).
Membership fees can be changed up and down, too. Not trying at all is
what will do us in.
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