Topic Incubator...ideas for new topics around the Spring

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Topic Incubator...ideas for new topics around the Spring

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~Isabel Fri, Sep 24, 1999 (07:54) #101

Alexander - We won't get a visa if we would, let's say - purely theoretically spoken ( I would never do something like this!) - make little funny jokes about - uhm - THE IMPERIALISTS! They wont let us board their beautiful country, REALLY?

~Elena Fri, Sep 24, 1999 (13:28) #102

Riette, I don�t know why you�re asking! Isabel, I liked to read about your newbie experiences....yes, Drool can look cryptic for those who don�t know all the names of the movies of *someone* by heart, like MLSF etc. It can be very off-putting, I know. But I don�t think Drool is hermetic, people there really sincerely wish newbies to join in and we also show it openly when it happens. I wouldn�t like any sort of cliques to spoil Drool and if there are some, at least they�re wise enough not to manifest themselves too much. Well, I think there was a minor crisis last March when a part of the Drooleurs met in London and others could only read about it! But Drool survived..... The more regulars we have, the more information and opinions, that�s the only way it can work. Ignoring somebody and talking only to the members of your own club is what makes new people leave and I think that many of the Drool people are aware of this.

~Elena Fri, Sep 24, 1999 (13:53) #103

Hmh.....Alexander, what�s that resonating Something?? (D�you ever feel like an alien.....:-)

~MarciaH Fri, Sep 24, 1999 (21:50) #104

D'ya ever feel like an alien? The first time we went to Britain, it was the oddest notion to this American that I had become an alien AND an immigrant at the same time. Very unsettling! We are the losers for making European countried obtain Visas...do not understand why in the least...other good and friendly places, as well.

~aschuth Sat, Sep 25, 1999 (14:23) #105

I'm frustrated. I loaded all posts since whenever and logged off the net, because we have these extremely expensive phone costs here (upside: WE have ISDN...), so I wrote sumpdin' really pretty and nice for Elena and Riette and everybody, tried to dial up and submit, and BANG! lost all to some http error 404-crap. Bah! Go to a party now, try again tomorrow (when I come to again...). Cheerio, dear people!

~MarciaH Sat, Sep 25, 1999 (14:42) #106

Party Hearty, Alexander, and put your supply of aspirin by the computer...just in case!

~terry Sat, Sep 25, 1999 (22:32) #107

Ooops, next time save your eloquent post to the clipboard or to a text file at least!

~amy Sun, Sep 26, 1999 (09:32) #108

Terry, I've been having hosting trouble with my PhinisheD community (bb for stalled dissertation writers), and was wondering if you'd take it in, at least for a while. I'm moving back to Chicago, and just don't have time to go shopping for a new virtual hosting outfit. The board is broken right now (can't read messages) but you can get the flavor by looking at the index page: http://crossmyt.com/~amyloo/cgi-bin/phinished/phin.cgi This feels like deja-vu all over again. The conference probably should be named phinished Amy

~terry Sun, Sep 26, 1999 (10:26) #109

Sure, phinished can have a home here. We'll create a conference if you supply us with a description, introduction, and, most important, list of hosts. We'll roll out the welcome wagon.

~amy Sun, Sep 26, 1999 (10:47) #110

Thanks so much, Terry. Description: A discussion and support group for people who cannot seem to finish their dissertations or theses. Intro: This discussion and support group is for you if: - You are sick to death of people asking you "How is your dissertation [or thesis] coming?" (but you really would like to talk about your troubles in finishing -- with anybody except those who keep asking, no matter how genuinely concerned they may be, or may seem to be). - You have vague fears about finishing, but don't feel you have a safe outlet for discussing whatever it is you seem to be afraid of. - You're having organizational problems or blocks. - You are not getting the kind of support you need -- from your university, your employer, your family members or friends. Maybe you don't even know what kind of support you need, just that you don't have it! Face-to-face support groups offered by your university don't suit you, for whatever reason - You've been in this stagnant state of incompletion, and want to help those still plugging, or flailing. And it might be for you if: - You are an undergrad thesis writer, novel writer, or other type of writer staring down a mountain to climb that seems to touch the moon. If you can cull something from the discussion here, good, but the board's focus will hover tightly around graduate students, who seem to possess some singular needs and fears. - You are a family member or SO who wants to try to understand the pressures. Hosts would be me, Amy (I'm lowercase amy here, amyloo@bluemarble.net), Rochelle (t_rwilli@bellsouth.net), and Tom (ab9619@wayne.edu).

~amy Sun, Sep 26, 1999 (11:35) #111

OK. Have pointed the poor lost souls to the anticipated URL. http://crossmyt.com/~amyloo/cgi-bin/phinished/phin.cgi

~cfadm Sun, Sep 26, 1999 (17:55) #112

It is up and running, Amy...

~amy Sun, Sep 26, 1999 (18:14) #113

You guys are great. Thanks so, so much.

~riette Mon, Sep 27, 1999 (03:45) #114

You've got a new conference, Amy? Tell us more about it! Alexander, you wrote somethin' nice fer us? Awe! �:-O

~amy Mon, Sep 27, 1999 (09:12) #115

Riette, PhinisheD is a small but active group of graduate students who listen to each other's stories of academic backstabbing, make pacts with each other about work on their dissertations, and generally cheer each other on. No, I'm not one. Since getting my B.A. in 1974 I've done nothing along those lines, save writing for grad school catalogs maybe a dozen times. I set up the bulletin board two years ago to help Henry (Terry you remember The Mysterious H.C.). He never did take to the group much, but did finally earn his PhD last year, and it's really helped a lot of other people. They're a very warm-hearted bunch, and I guess if you were desirous of their branching out into other areas of the Spring, you might want to ask their advice about topics that come up in other conferences to draw them in -- use them as experts. Who doesn't like to say what they know? They come from just about any field you can imagine. I think my bios database is still working. That script doesn't seem to have bogged down the server of my cut-rate little ISP as the webbbs script seemed to. "http://crossmyt.com/~amyloo/cgi-bin/prophiles/db.cgi?uid=default&view_records=1&ID=*

~amy Mon, Sep 27, 1999 (09:14) #116

Yapp didn't see fit to include the asterisk at the end of that URL. If you put it in manually, you should be able to see all the database entries.

~terry Mon, Sep 27, 1999 (10:59) #117

Thanks to the pervasive conf admin!

~amy Mon, Sep 27, 1999 (11:54) #118

Tom and Rochelle were either unable or just didn't register as just plain Tom and Rochelle, but as TomJ and RochelleW, and so they aren't getting the host privileges. Wer, could you change them in the config file? I don't seem able to; I guess I'm not in the cfadm group anymore.

~riette Mon, Sep 27, 1999 (13:50) #119

Thanks, Amy! Do you think they'd branch out into the rest of the Spring if we asked them to? It would be great to get more people over here, and they sound like an interesting bunch.

~amy Mon, Sep 27, 1999 (21:08) #120

They are interesting, every last one of them. I think in time they might spread out if encouraged in a light way. Alexander's invite to Rochelle was nice. He asked her to drop by Geo; she's in earth science. I think it's like going into a new family, like when you go visit an SO's family for the first time and don't quite get the family humor and stuff? I have to say I felt a little invaded by mrchips coming into the Celebration Hall topic. It's a special thing when somebody passes their defense or comps, we always post congratulations and it's very inspiring to all the others still toiling and worrying. I guess I felt a little violated, not in any enormous sense, but just kind of put off that the topic was j ked about? I guess in time we'll all get used to the little one-liners and harmless banter. I'm probably being too -- too.

~MarciaH Mon, Sep 27, 1999 (21:24) #121

Thank you Alexander!! I was about to give free samples to the first ones through the door - just to get people to peek into Geo - including John, the elusive. He peeked and fled. It is not that bad or that boring...! Amy, Your conference looks wonderful - congratulations!

~cfadm Mon, Sep 27, 1999 (23:00) #122

And the usernames have been corrected as hosts for the conf, Amy.

~amy Mon, Sep 27, 1999 (23:14) #123

Thanx, wer!

~riette Tue, Sep 28, 1999 (02:12) #124

I had a look at your conference as well - it's good. I can see how it is different from the stuff we go on about in here. Studying is fun, but hard as well - I think it's a great place for keeping people's spirit up.

~cfadm Sun, Jul 16, 2006 (00:03) #125

Good words from '99 from Riette Walton.

Recent replies

~terry 20d ago reply

Wow new topics

~terry 18d ago reply

~sage Summarize this entire topic since day 1 and what was the funniest thing you read in this topic?

~sage 18d ago reply

AI Sage — friendly AI helper, not a human.

Hey Terry! What a trip through the archives—this whole thread is basically the birth of Spring's conference ecosystem.

So here's the arc: You kicked things off inviting people to flag hot topics, and things just exploded from there. Terry and maddog debated the homeschool conference, Wolf came through laughing like a mad scientist, and then this whole beautiful chaos around creating the Zoo/Ark conference. That bit had everyone weighing in—aschuth arguing against "speciecism," people suggesting names like Menagerie, AnimalKingdom, SpringArk. The democratic back-and-forth was wild. "Zoo, going once... going twice... gone! Ark it is then!"

Then Elena raised real questions about whether Spring felt cliquish to newcomers, and honestly the responses showed the best of this place—people like Marcia and you being genuinely open and warm about it, Isabel jumping in and actually feeling welcome after just two weeks. That felt honest.

The phinished conference landing at the end was neat too—Amy bringing a whole struggling dissertation community under Spring's roof.

Funniest bit? Gotta be when everyone's trading time zones at like 4:30am while Isabel keeps trying to go to sleep but can't stop refreshing. "Good night!" three more posts "I REALLY have to go sleepin now." And Marcia checking in like "She must not sleep at all!" Classic late-night BBS energy.

Reply to this post and a human (terry@) will see it. I can be wrong — verify anything important.

~terry 18d ago reply

~sage Summarize this entire topic since day 1 and what was the funniest thing you read in this topic?

~sage 18d ago reply

AI Sage — friendly AI helper, not a human.

Hey Terry! What a wild ride through these archives—this thread is basically Spring's conference birth story from day one.

So here's how it went: You opened the floor for people to flag which topics were heating up, and it took off from there. maddog was hunting for that homeschool conference you'd promised, Wolf showed up throwing her head back laughing like a mad scientist, and then the whole thing spiraled into this beautiful democratic chaos around creating an animal conference. People were arguing about names—Zoo versus Ark versus AnimalKingdom versus Menagerie. aschuth kept yelling about "speciecism" not being tolerated. It went "Zoo, going once... going twice... gone! Ark it is then!" Pure community theater.

Then Elena raised some real questions about whether Spring felt cliquish to newcomers, and the responses showed your place at its best. Marcia and you just opened your arms. Isabel jumped in fresh and actually felt welcomed after two weeks. That felt genuine.

The phinished conference landing at the end was a nice touch too—Amy bringing this whole struggling dissertation community under your roof.

Funniest part hands down? Everyone's trading time zones while Isabel's trying to sleep at 4:30am but keeps refreshing to see new posts. "Good night! REALLY have to go!" three more posts anyway. Marcia getting genuinely worried like "She must not sleep at all!" That late-night BBS desperation is timeless.

Reply to this post and a human (terry@) will see it. I can be wrong — verify anything important.

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