Where did I read that marketing consists of three steps. 1. defining a whole product 2. defining who wants the product 3. connecting 1 with 2 We have this Spring. It has everything the WELL has except a millionaire backer and 10,000 users. Do I detect a chasm here? We do have a great core of contributors now and a decent interface. We're on the web and folks can telnet here if they want. We have some commercial websites that foot the bills. And an electronic commerce / database strategy to expand on this revenue source. When I started out in sales, everyone predicted I would fail. Then I found a little fledgling startup company (Sematech) and $6 million in sales later I had a success story. And they had a world class computing environment and network. Our product is us. And the interface here that supports us. There is what we have now and there is what we expect when we add more features and enhancements. What we are now is a place where we talk about the Bronte sisters, motorcycles, Americs philosophy, food and restaurants, cars, movie and tv hunks, and assorted other topics that are pretty much standard fare on conferencing systems like Electric Minds, the WELL and Echo (movies, tv, culture, the web, the internet, politics, music, etc.) It seems like we've had our biggest successes in finding these little niches and supporting them. We need to get good at finding more of these and finding some corporate sponsorship.

I'm on for the ride.

What first, Captain?

Who gets the feeling that The Spring tries to be all things to all people? In my experience, it's the people who make the topics, not the topics that make the people. When random passers drop by, have a look around, and notice that most of the topics are utterly silent, they probably drift away...How about culling some of the old confs/topics?

If you mean establishing a "hotlist", yes, I've done that. If not, what do you mean?

Yes, I meant hotlist. It's been a while since I've been on the web interface, when my lan is up and my router is working I usually telnet in and use the terminal interface. Today I'm logged on via webtv and on the web interface.

Does anyone else use a conference list? I, being the sysad, keep all the conferences in my list. Today, amazingly for the first time in four years, there was a blatently obscene post in apps. We're amazingly free of garbage posts here since it's so open. Sometimes folks have doubles because they want to revisit a conference twice during a session to see if anyone's responded to their posts.

You wouldn't think there'd be anything to swear about in apps...

speaking of apps... can you expunge (KILL, KILL, FASTER, FASTER) some of the original posts in there. Basically emails (one or two per conference) from Net Rabbit days?

*curious eyebrow raise* guess I know which topic I'm gonna read up on tonight...

and I think you might have meant the yapp conf, Stacey...

app, yapp.... yeah whatever. *embarassed grin*

I'm dense. Fill me in more about which posts you want squished.

I do love the blushing! *smile*

past, present, and future all the same now?

Is this yet another dead topic on my conference list? :(

Unless you spice it up, I guess it is :)

While we're on the subject of topics, how about dropping by to "Babes", where I'm attempting to poach people to come and talk about...erm...well...you know....*B.A.B.E.S* :)))))

Yeah, so far only us voyeuristic babes have been dropping by! C'mon guys, where's your pride? I wanna hear Nick firth over someone besides Daisy and Jordan!

Double second yes yes yes to that. Oh yes.

Yeah, so far only us voyeuristic babes have been dropping by! And don't forget me and my Claire Danes obsession :)

you've been peeking too Autumn?! I thought I was the only one!

LOL!

You might want to come and find the topic opened about your good self, though... We might let you post there, but don't bank on it

Ha ha, I've already beaten you to it! (very tongue in cheek)

rah rah rah rah rah....if terry ever makes me host in Babes, then I'll freeze you, ban you, scribble you and generally make your life hell. Because that's what we love....!!! ;)

I'll get to that now!

Ha! I can take it. Freezing and banning I understand, but scribbling?? Please explain...

not sure if we can actually scribble here on the Spring, which is a bit odd.

(so are most of us...)

don't worry about it

well, hope you get a day off soon... dunno, i must be wearing down... used to be no sweat, the 100 hour thing... hell, during my sonic-gypsy days i went two plus years without a day off... now, i go 3 or 4 weeks and it's like i'm going insane or something... reading the most infuriating book... bought a new copy of verlaine's "saturnine poems", other day... finally get a chance to really look it over and it's CRAP... the translation is so frigging garbled and just... wrong... the poetry is all lost, in forced, stupid rhymes... the rhythm is all off... example... "chanson d'automne" (or "song of autumn, one of my all-time favorite poems): The long sobs of the autumn violins wound my heart with a melancholy languor. Suffocating and ghostly pale when i hear the hour ring, i remember former days, and weep. And off i go, on an evil wind, which bears me now here, now there, like a dead leaf... (becomes, in this extremely anal new translation:) Leaf-strewing gales utter low wails like violins- till on my soul their creeping dole stealthily wins... Days gone by! In such an hour,i, choking and pale, call you to mind,- then like the wind weep i and wail. And, as by the wind harsh and unkind, driven by grief, go i, here, there, reckoning not where, like a dead leaf. (i mean, what the hell is that? it possesses no style... no elegance, no life... there's a special place in hell reserved for defilers of great art... what a frigging waste!) (hmmm... perhaps i should hope there's not a similar place in hell awaiting defilers of topics, too)...

(amen and amen!) Nope, no day off in site yet, so it will be at least another two weeks...

Nick, I'm sure Paul Verlaine is spinning in his grave...

that would be fun to watch (the spinning thing)

Hey, Terry: check out http://idirect.tucows.com/affiliate.html possibly interesting addition to spring.net being an isp, ifn the terms are right and it doesn't clash with Stroud's stuff...

Will do. I just sent Stroud a note to change all his links to spring.net. And yes, you sure can be host of genx. I just noticed that Doug spammed the books conference. I can't believe we've been spammed by Doug who I give practically free webspace to.

Thought it was weird, myself, but didn't want to say anything and start another feud...

he's posted them on here somewhere... if I can just remember where

found it! http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/web/45