I see us few taking over the firthers and the modjaners. Us, the spring liberators. I also see us in fourty years' time, doing exactly this with our trembling little old fingers, and big, grumpy scowls on our wrinkled faces. That's how long I think the Sprink will and must endure. I never want it to end.

Spring, that is.

oh, this isn't where we talk about our jeans no longer zippin'? (i'm with riette, except that we won't be typing anymore in forty years, probably just use mental telepathy, and hey, we say what we think anyway, right?)

....maybe a new look would help....(shameless self promotion :-) follow the link in the topic 24

A conference for getting going in Spring. It might have a buncha different topics, like: 1)how to navigate your way around a lot faster or more effectively (tips & tricks) 2)how to get the hotlist to eliminate responses that one has already read 3)a table that is easy to read and shows how many people were in a certain conference or topic 4)an easy-to-understand explanation of what telnet is, if it is a faster way to get around---and an easy-to-understand, very specific, step-by-tep explanation of how to set it up 5)an easy-to-understand, step-by-step explanation of how to do certain things, like become a host of some conference 6)tips & pointers on how to handle being hurt or being over-reacting or constructively making discussible the undiscussible or peacemaking 7)samples of some repartee from different topics in the conferences 8)a welcoming welcome that is winsome and engaging 9)a list of all the conferences, and then a macro that would enable a person to click on a conference and all the topics for that conference would come up, along with the number of responses 10)an edited list of feedback from people, where each feedback item is either given a number or is set off in its own paragraph, and where all conversational responses that are not pure feedback are edited out (there could be an edited feedback topic and then can be a another separate topic that is a Part 2 where the same topic is unedited) It might be better if the topics in the 'Getting Started' Conference have only factual information, not conversation, so the responses could be easy to read through quickly. And if the information were written with the beginner computer user expressly in mind. I would like to see the quality of the responses in Spring to stay as high as it is now. If there were more people, that would be better for me. It would be interesting to hear the reasons why some of the people left who were in Spring. Some of them I really got alot out of, like the guy who started a buncha the topics in philosophy, and Steve Ganton (or something, he did some responses in philosophy in around November that were making me wish he was still here). To ask people who are here right now (a d others who will be here in the future) what are the things about Spring that bother them or have made them think about leaving. Wouldn't an article in the Austin Chronicle attract people? Or an article in that Thursday XL supplement (Austin American-Statesman), in the cyber column? Or if someone did a search in the search engines (Sap, Hotbot, Webcrawler, Infoseek) for virtual community, and they got Spring in one of the items? The future of Spring will have 3D travel to where other people are. Their computer will be on and it will hologram you so you can step out into where they are and talk and translate and see and hear and 'touch' and 'feel' sensations. All sorts of combinations will be possible in all parts of the world and soon enough on Mars or wherever else space stations appear. I know alotta these suggestions are already up and running, but they can be reanimated, or consolidated or re-formed to be all in one conference, or maybe redone or rewritten differently. Oops, the circus wagon for giraffes is leaving, so I better go....don't wanna miss my ride to Anchorage. Ah, I feel the warm air of an Egyptian evening (most countries are Egyptian)....all I have in my suitcase is my toothbrush....that's all I need.

good ideas! there isn't much co-ordinated direction, or so it feels to me. it's all a bit slap-dash and muddle-through, from all of us (so please don't take offence, anyone!). I'd like to see more effort on welcoming new people, and making the interface more friendly; because it's not that friendly at all, especially to people unfamiliar with web conferencing and the basic ideas behind it. They're confronted with a bunch of stuff that they don't understand, and it's not really explained!

chicken butt.

um, I'd rather guess why...

or when

nope, why...

why?

chicken thigh.

makes good pie

Where?

is that why I can't get root log in to work on www.spring.net?

Terry, I don't understand any of that, but your obvious excitement says it's cool and edgy, so - GREAT NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whatever you can't get to work, we'll fix it. access is a completely different machine from this one, and I'll set up an account for you there, wer.

ok...guess I ought to get around to giving you a call...

anyway... does the Amazon.com banners/buttons bother anyone? anyplace on here that I can't put them? don't want to over-commercialize the place (don't ya know)

I thought that ad in the books conf was new! It's kind of amazing we've avoided (?) it this long, really. Doesn't bother me at all.

cool...

It makes sense really.

yeah, right...I'll learn by doin' it... (can tell ya how after if'n you'd like...)

and, after looking around their site, (for about thirty minutes) they ain't got no kind of affiliate program that I can find...

tell me about it! i did the same thing. was thinking about stealing their graphic with a link to them but i'm not sure if that's kosher!

Hope y'all figger this out. How does this site compare to Microsoft's site? Any comments on this?

what do you mean by microsoft's site? do you have a url?

yes, please, more info and we will be happy to comply...

It's opportunity week on the web! After "WELLians who deserted", it's the next big major thing: GEOnetizens without a home... This calls for some serious action, I say! But rub your sore eyes and read yerself: Sites Lure GeoCities Refugees by Declan McCullagh 1:45�p.m.��2.Jul.99.PDT -- WASHINGTON -- Yahoo's rivals are using the company's high-profile misstep over ownership of GeoCities homesteads to lure customers to their own Web-hosting services. Warner Bros. Online began an advertising campaign Friday morning to stress that, unlike Yahoo, it has never claimed rights to the text, sounds, and images that its AcmeCity members post on their free Web sites. "We don't have those claims on the consumer's content, nor would we ever do so," said Jim Moloshok, president of Warner Bros. Online. "As copyright owners, we know the value of content." Moloshok predicts that by the end of the July 4th weekend, the 20-site campaign will result in about 50,000 new subscribers -- a big boost to the entertainment-themed site's current membership of 350,000. When Yahoo purchased GeoCities this spring, the site claimed about 4.5 million users. Other competitors have been even more aggressive in luring GeoCities refugees. One Webjump.com ad this week says: "GeoCities just put your picture in a hemorrhoids commercial? Protect your sites!!! Click here to find out how." The company says it welcomes Yahoo's comparatively restrictive terms of service, which the company modified Wednesday in response to complaints. "We're quite pleased with what GeoCities has done. We're getting a real bump off of this," said Webjump's Steven English. "You've got a bunch of writers and artists who are leaving Yahoo. They're pissed off and out there searching for options." Webjump.com, which says it has over 400,000 members, has erected a protest site that says: "Quite simply, when we say 'free' we mean it." Although numbers are difficult to estimate, all indications point to a mass migration of disgruntled GeoCities members to other sites. "We've just exploded. We've doubled our signup rate. We've tripled our traffic in the last three days. Each new day we set new traffic records," said Scott Holmes, president and owner of Crosswinds. "We have never laid any claims to our members' material. The only right we reserve is the right to delete the account. If we want to use a member's content, we ask, and we've never had someone say no." On the Crosswinds signup page, the company stresses it "lays no claim to your site's content or copyright." Not all other free hosting services have such generous contracts. Tripod, which is owned by the parent company of Wired News, requires its users to grant it "a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive, worldwide, unrestricted license to use, copy, modify, transmit, distribute, and publicly perform or display the submitted Member Web Page." Microsoft's new MSN Personal Home Pages, as reported in Salon.com, grants the company similarly broad rights. Yahoo is scrambling to regain its footing. In response to the boycott and criticism from outraged customers, the company late Wednesday revised rules that had given it eternal ownership of all GeoCities Web sites. "We're seeing how we can clarify our intentions, given the recent outcry," said Tim Brady, Yahoo vice president of production, in an interview. But the changes aren't enough for many GeoCities users, who have turned their pages gray in protest or simply abandoned the site for good. Others say they can no longer trust Yahoo or GeoCities. "They haven't changed the terms enough to make their customers happy," said Jessica Gaitan, a former GeoCities member. "Tacking on a line about not owning my content isn't enough to balance all the rest of the wording which has not changed and still gives Yahoo/GeoCities and its affiliates far more rights to my content than is needed for what they say they want to do with it," Gaitan said. "They've gone too far trying to protect their own interests, and not reassured me enough to keep me as a customer." Yahoo now says that instead of having no limits on what it can do with your Web pages -- including publishing them as a book or making them into a movie -- it will now just use them for Web hosting, marketing, or promotion. "The new Yahoo terms of service are still too vague and, without clear definitions of 'marketing' or 'promotions,' mean little additional protection for site owners," said James Lowder, a science fiction writer who most recently co-authored Spectre of the Black Rose. Organizers of a boycott also refuse to back down. "Yahoo hasn't yet found the right answer. It's like they keep flailing about," said Jim Townsend, who runs the Yahoo boycott site. He said his pageviews skyrocketed this week, from 25,000 visits on Tuesday to 300,000 visits Wednesday. Until then, Yahoo's competitors will keep up the pressure. "We saw we had an advantage over them and we responded instantly," says Warner Bros.' Moloshok. An unintended irony is that Time-Warner, the company that could never get its trouble-plagued Pathfinder site aloft, is now claiming to be more tech-savvy than one of the Internet's landmark startups. "We're a lot more Internet-friendly," said Moloshok. "It's interesting to see how a company that was born in the new media environment has turned on its heritage." Time-Warner's advertising purchase includes sites such as about.com, hotbot.com (owned by the parent company of Wired News), IMDB.com, rollingstone.com and other sites targeted in part at young adults ages 18-34. Related Wired Links: Yahoo: Your House Is My House 29.Jun.99 Blowout Quarter for Yahoo 8.Apr.99 Yahoo's Offline Communities 7.Apr.99 GeoCities Gets Set to Stream 3.Mar.99 Yahoo: Gettin' Sticky with It 2.Mar.99 Yahoo Gobbles Up GeoCities 28.Jan.99 Copyright � 1994-98 Wired Digital Inc. All rights reserved.

Pretty fascinating, not? To paraphrase an old Hongkong cartoon, "How can we make a quick buck out of it?", or to stick more to the sophistication and awareness the general public expects from regulars at this here respectable SPRING, how can we help these poor people, comfort them and offer them a new home? Make their lifes happier, makes this world, erh, web a better place? Now comes the audience participation bit of this here regular program sponsored by *superstar*, the music magazine that really cares: (A) What ought the SPRING do about it? (B) Who could do what (at which costs)?

Alex, Mary Murphy used to use Geocities and so did others in Drool. I will post up there about the prospect for bring them here to set up. Would that be OK? Or did you have something else in mind?

everyone go by and read this article... http://www.builder.com/Business/Paul/070299/?dd.bu.bb.0708.05

Many good points therein. A Must read - and attitude adjustment might be the most worthwhile part right now. Thanks for the suggestion - even if it is too early to absorb all the good stuff they wrote. I bookmarked it for later when both eyes are open.

Terry, do you see any angle here? The Austincore could promote websites at the Spring in Austin (via the Radio shows, press releases to local papers, etc.), perhaps offer people help in moving their stuff over. Might generate more Springizens, traffic, ad-income, whatever! Perhaps some people would be happy to even pay a nominal fee like two bucks per month per 5 MB. This is a great opportunity - many people who *have* web sites seek a new, cool home. We shouldn't miss this chance, I guess. Terry, what do you think?

Define what specific steps I should take, Alexender, to take advantage of this opportunity. What action needs to be taken? 1. We've got some good brand names in spring.net, austen.com, firth.com, workontheweb.com and others. Are there other brandnames that you can think of that we should grab hold of in these last days of the "good names" gold rush? 2. Wer has done a bunch of logos, maybe we should start really latching on to one or a few of them. Wer, will you repost that url again? How about drumming us up a short, sweet sound logo, shuth? Something like the Intel Inside sound, a gushing spring sound maybe? What can we use for a hook? 3. What's our distinctive "attitude"? 4. What human face can we get for our site? Can we get Colin Firth to be the symbol of our site, will he let us do this? 5. What high impact technology can we use other than our front page webcam and our Yapp conferencing system? 6. What can we do first? We offered conferencing early on. What else? 7. What offline brand like Coke or Pepsi can we hitch our star to that will be consistent with our personality? 8. How can we, and this is crucial, form alliances and partnerships with other websites? Are folks here willing to help forge these alliances. We even need to forge alliances with ourselves, like the Spring with Austen, Austen with tvshows.com, etc. I've certainly opened up a couple of dozen affiliate programs that I'm trying to find time to implement. wer, will you help set some of these up? 9. Are we meeting the needs of our population? Gee, I missed one. What'd do y'all think?

Terry, for one, I am pretty sure Colin Firth is out of contention. He is a very private person and avoids publicity wherever and whenever he can. I am almost certain this would not appeal to him...but I could be wrong. As they say, on any given day...! (He would be a lovely poster "child" though.)

and as for any specific questions to me, sure!

and if you are talking about the banners and buttons page, it's http://www.spring.net/~cfadm/links/index.html

image is nothing... thirst is everything!

Bruce is his own posterchild and kind of cranky. Michael Jordan wants too much money. Who? Who? Who?

Mike Judge? Kelso? Gregory Kallenberg? a random Barton Springs salamander? GWBush?

what are you looking for in a face, terry? i think this would be helpful in our brainstorming!

I think we've already found our face, it's the same face with the brain and heart behind the Spring... Paul! C'mon, Paul, stop chuckling! You suit us just fine... creative and brilliant and eccentric enough to encompass most all of our differences while being the nearly literal glue that hold us together! Just the pose... how about you bellyflopping into Barton Springs! It screams Austin, I know, but it also screams fun!

and you know Ree would agree...

I was going to pose the question on a well-read Drool board, but Stacey has come up with the perfect answer. Our beleagured and beloved founder, Terry. You can put up little PT and how he grew into handsome manhood and wisdom and all that, or we can just erect a statue of him! Whatever, he gets my vote.

i agree!

...is that on Spring Gallery, or have you seen a picture of him I cannot locate? Sounds like the picture captures the essence of our fearless leader just fine.

Pick one at http://www.spring.net/~terry/albumjpg

This is my favourite: Terry waiting for his blushing bride (ME) in front of the church....

"Would you like a lift?" he says, to his child bride.

And she says, 'Sure, but honey, what is that big, long thing you're holding on to?'

Thas' fer tonight, my little chickadee.

ha-ha!!! Oh no - I'm supposed to giggle shyly, aren't I??

Yup, I got the wheels, babe.

Just built another house for that, you're just in time, we'll be christening it 1/1/2000!

Gmpf, not even married yet, and you're already getting me a seperate house to live in! �hug�

No it's for work only, I'm still working on the tipi.

Gosh, you guys are soooo romantic. Mind if I just sit here and watch the young couple? Warms my old heart, you know, thinking of the olden days...

...ummm! I remember, too *sigh*

ha-ha! Yeah! Terry is young, and I am a couple!

hehe, if I sit down and have a couple, I feel young again, too...

ha-ha!!! How witty can one person get?!

What do you mean shop for a cooperation?

Think who you'd like to partner with. What can you offer each other? Dream up an idea, sketch a path to riches. Figure out how to share resposibilities and work. What can you offer? A name some people like, with an appraisable name. A web community that's very small. Not really much in manpower. What do you need? This place needs value-added services. Databases. Searchable stuff. Orderable stuff. Entertainment and information. And marketing! Two commmunities that I looked at recently are deja.com and the expert exchange. The major differences: Search tools, good marketing, all kinds of discussions - especially technical stuff -, auctions. I LOVED to get a notification after somebody replied to my posts. Tells you to come back again... Great idea! You don't need all that. But some. You need (a) stuff that keeps people around/coming back, and (b) marketing to get 'em here. If you had partners who would contribute interesting content, you could solve some of the problem. Maybe you could get some sponsoring. Then you'd only have to lure more folks here, and see to it they don't walk away easily. You could go on a new tangent: Put up notes on college blackboards that you look for folks with ideas, who'd like to experiment with online communities and services. I bet you could find some people with ideas who just long to show what they can do... Maybe somebody wants to develop a concept or service as a paper in college or university, and need some sponsoring. What can you pay? Free housing at least... That's not half bad! If you had concepts, maybe prototypes, you could try to sell other folks on the idea, try to join forces. Like a radio-heaven... Food-related stuff... Technical stuff... You could offer: a name worth $$$, an idea, and the manpower behind it to get going.

[Sounds like a heap of common places. I got more specific ideas sometimes. Ask Wer, I seem to remember having mailed some stoopid "sure-to-win"-ideas of mine to him. He kinda liked them, I think. You guys ought to share a couple beers or iced teas, whatever, and seriously talk. None of my biz, maybe, but that's what I think, anyhow.]

As to who I'd like to partner with, perhaps an online bookstore or movie/tv site, since a lot of what we do is literature or fan related. We would offer them a seminal community, poised to grow and a great name. As far as databases go, we have something called MySQL so we could set up searchable databases and we have ecommerce. What kind of entertainment and information? Marketing is a biggie. Any marketing mavens in our community? I also looked at deja.com, firsthand, I spent several hours touring their facility in Austin and talking to them. No partnership possibilities, but they are poised for explosive growth (a good stock opportunity) with their being the "consumer reports" of the Internet and repository of so much product information. What is the expert exchange?

Paul! 'member Stephen... used to work at the magnetic bunny (he may have left soon after you got there)... He works at deja!

The Expert exchange is a forum where you can post any queries, and people answer them. The curious thing is, you pay for the priviledge to ask in "credits", and reward good responses. The result reminds me of what Bruce Sterling described in his last book, the networks where your social status and ranking is measured by what you do for other folks or the community. "Magnetic Bunny" - sounds like a steamy place! You ever worked there, La Tinianova? Paul, maybe you ought to think up partnering with Austin area themes, and get a foothold there. Or, what could you offer to Austin interest groups? Get services that really benefit their users, and then get users. Like, rig a deal with local press... College radio... Minority scenes... Folks who would offer interesting ideas, and would genuinely be appreciative to get any service. Marketing is really important. When I took over superstar, I was (and am) still very surprised - the mag was never promoted! There was no subscriptiond drives, there were no ad exchanges... Stuff that doesn't cost anything but a smile, but can help... How are folks supposed to come and try your offer, if they don't get notice of them?

Yep Alexander! I met Paul at the "Magnetic Bunny"... he came to work there about six months after I started... steamy??? well I could have you guys guessing for days but no, not too steamy (til Paul got that webcam up and going!)

Ok, now gimme the FULL details... "Magnetic", uh?

Itch-da-bike? Go, talk to the vets, and mention the word "fleas". You'll be amazed.