Here's the current list, 10 indicates existing conference. 9 is a high score, then 8 etc. 10 apps 10 art 10 austen 10 austentest 10 austin 10 books 10 community 10 computer 10 cultures 10 deeper 10 dpo 10 dsm 10 environment 10 fitness 10 food 10 internet 10 lovelinks 10 media 10 movies 10 music 10 newtest 10 parent 10 poetry 10 politics 10 porch 10 projects 10 radio 10 restaurants 10 sex 10 sports 10 techbusiness 10 travel 10 tv 10 web 10 windows 10 yapp 10 9 business 9 capcity 9 couples 9 crafts 9 culture 9 genx 9 health 9 homeowner 9 hosts 9 interviews 9 jazz 9 languages 9 life 9 newage 9 psychology 9 religion 9 science 9 singles 9 software 9 southwest 9 spirit 9 therapy 9 unix 9 working 9 writing 8 usenet 8 wireless 7 boomers 7 country 7 feedback 7 games 7 golf 7 hacking 7 java 7 philosophy 7 photography 7 scifi 7 space 7 zines 6 boating 6 cooking 6 energy 6 filmmaking 6 lists 6 weird 5 bastrop 5 beatles 5 disability 5 earth 5 news 5 springkids 5 theater 5 veggie 5 water 4 aging 4 apple 4 buddhism 4 cars 4 classifieds 4 comics 4 drugs 4 eff 4 newyork 4 os2 4 outdoors 4 sanfran 4 tibet 4 wildlife

How about a conference on using personal conferencing skills to launch a shadow career. See http://www.cyberlyceum.com the General Conference for commercial online networking for one idea. There must be others too!.

Hmmm...here's one more vote for a) a Philosophy conference and b) a Christian conference...I'm willing to host either/both ~M

Hey Mike! Sounds cool to me, but how 'bout a Religion Conference too since that's a bit different from Philosophy? -Sterling

That's what I meant...a Philosophy Conference and a Christian conference. I don't think I'd be in a very good intellectual position to host just a "Religion" conference, being a Christian myself...:) ~M

How about a spirit conference? But Mike's been trying to get me to cut down on conferences and I'm looking for a way to have separate areas for a few very popular confrences and the lesser used conferences.

Hmm...I *have* been asking you to cut down the conferences, that's true Terry. Perhaps I'd better heed my own advice and find out if there's actually any *support* for such a conference :) Better leave that one on the back-burner and I'll get back to you.

Okay...I'm going to refer to this in the Community conference, too, but it's relevant here. My sister has just had a baby (wahey! congrats, sis :) and seeing as her husband still works full-time, I get the feeling she is rather isolated. Remembering the infamous Parenting conference on the WELL, I thought it would be a good idea to have the same here. I'm sure a lot of people who use Spring are parents, and a good conference could be the result. However, and this is where I shall skip to the Community conference...

Congratulations to your sister!

1. I'm interested in: science philosophy Chrisianity parenting just for starters. There doesn't seem to be much action here on any of these fronts. Am I missing something? I tried posting in the parenting conference, for example, but as far as I can tell, no one else has posted there in some time. I'm not trying to be sarcastic when I say that from what I can tell all the interest seems to be in Bronte or drooling. 2. Is there a better conference or topic to ask these questions?

Heh. Also, is there no way to indent a line?

Hmm, spaces don't work. Yeah, right now Bronte, apps, and drool are the happening places. But we're looking into ways to pump up the other areas. Invite some other folks if you like.

Does anyone else think that there should be an Austin Cacophony Society?

and you ought to handle the host position!

Me? Why, whatever do you mean?

Why, yes, I also am in favor of an Austin Cacophony Society. Funny you should mention it! I've been corresponding with some high Kapoop of the Seattle CS this week (I was gonna tell you at work tonight...) and he's supposed to be getting back to me about organizing an Austin branch (or whatever...)

Thomas, you work at Little Italy too? What a mad house it must be!! *smile*

Just two more regularly scheduled shifts and he's outta here, though.

Whoa, you mean you're moving on?

Thomas is. I'm still stuck for now...

Movin' on to where? Thomas I mean.

Droppin' food service and movin' on in the computer world. Works for the state now and would like something that pays more, since he's got experience now.

There are a lot of high paying geek jobs in Austin. And you can break in to high tech real easily through a temp agency like XXCAL, Pedley Stringer, or Okeefe Associates. They can just about get anyone on any level a high tech job, employers are getting desparate!

Here's my chance then!

Now, wait. Does this imply you want to come back to Austin?

stacey? imply? You sure you're talking to the right person?

*smile* I'm coming back to Austin to visit, that's pretty much the extent. I was telling Brandon last night that more and more, Austin is like a FABULOUS place to visit, seeming less and less like home. As you can imagine, these feelings are paired with a growing affection for Colorado. Right now, I'm in limbo with "feeling at home" but it's coming and I'm eager to have that comfortable sensation again.

Hi Terry, everybody. I came snooping for an old discussion of linear vs threaded discussions as Myretta and I are trying to document some of our history before it's too long forgotten. The vc discussions are interesting. And I had an idea for a conference, based on a need we've heard voiced a few times at Pemberley: a repository for amateur romance fiction. Our fan fic board is limited to fiction written about Jane Austen characters, but some of the writers have branched out or have inquired if there is a place for stories not using Austen characters. As you know, Star Trek fanfic is legendary and has a huge following on usenet, and I understand X-Files stories have become quite popular, too. You might start with romance -- always a nice place to start anything -- and take off from there. -Amy

I would love to do this, what new conference would be a good place to start. So wonderful to hear from you!

What a terrific idea! Hope it comes about!

I'll keep my eyes open for this new thang...

So should I create a conference called romance? Would that be the first step to implementing Amy's idea. Back me up with some ideas here! And there are two new conferences to check out, news and genx. Both are full of topics and content already. Check 'em out. Genx is a blast from our past.

Maybe it would be better to go with a Writing conf, with different genres as topics...I would love to have a collaborative one where you wrote so far, and someone else took over...

How about a Women Only conference? Of course, to be fair, a Men Only conference would need to happen too. They would need to be 'private', admission after gender verification. And yes, Terry, I'll host the womens spot assuming you tell me how hosting and restricting or unrestricing access works.

A writing conf. would be superb. We could have online stories, where everyone writes a chapter until we have a final story! Gender confs? Dunno....is there a place for "girl talk" and "guy talk" that's not already fulfilled? I personally don't really feel the need to have a private bloke conference. What do others think?

Sure, I'll be glad to set up a conference with you as host, Gena. And it will be a "ulist" conference where you have to be the host to add someone to the ulist or userlist. Whaddaya want to call it. Women?

I don't know... what was it over at ECHO? WON - Women On Net. I think that'll do. Unless there are problems adopting a name of another bbs conference. You'd know better 'bout that. If no problem, use the above suggestion and email me host-ly instructions please sir.

won is ok, if won is what you want, won is it. One more chance to decide. wos? (women on spring). women, won, or wos, or ? Any more input before I create it?

Spring Women... now that's catchy. Spring Women, Spring Women!!! Make it Spring Women. Please...

you can use two words, right...

It has to be one word, fairly short.

SHESpring?

shespring would work, she would work, it just can't have any spaces in it. Gena, what think?

How about underscores ("_") in the place of spaces?

That would work, I'll toss it back to Gena for the final word on what it will be called. Gena, once more please, with feeling.

:)

Hi y'all... i'm back from my big ski adventure. I think stacy has hit on the winner. SHESpring sounds absolutely fab-u-lous dah-link! Send that woman a TOOTSIE POP SUCKER on me.... what's your favorite flavor Stacy?

Pez...

yep. PEZ... orange flavored! Glad you approved Gena!

Pez... haven't had those in ages! I'm a 'Hot Tamale' fan myself, or cinnimon bears.

love gummi bears!

did somebody say 'gummi bears'? my mouth is watering...

gummi bears! bouncin' here and there and everywhere!

do ya eat their heads off first??

pop 'em in full-bodied!

*nibble nibble*

you're a nibbler, eh?

just don't touch Autumn's ears!

No, you can touch, and probably nibble, too, just don't shove your tongue in them...

Bingo!

*lol*

inre response #28: I would love to host any said repository on adultstory...

Why, that comes as such a shock, wer! (*sarcasm*)

i'd like to host an Infinity conference, since it's one of my favourite subjects :)

terry, is there a conf here on the spring analogous to the weird conf on the WeLL? we seem to have enough critical mass of weird springperns now to where something like that just might take off.

We can start one. Can anyone think of a weird name for it?

i was thinking of "screwed" as the name of the conf!

Any other ideas? Or anyone second that one? We'll leave it open for a couple of days before launching this new conf.

SCREWED is good. It's versatile....

and rolls off the tongue easily, too, I might add...

... and it's catching on. Any more thoughts on 'screwed'.

wer slipped me.

hehe...

What is this conference about? "Weird" and "screwed" don't seem synonymous to me. (uh-oh, there's that word again...)

It's about stuff that's way over the edge. It's about letting your hair down and tossing aside your inhibitions. It's about getting as crazy and wild as you can. It's, well, weird. Or, uh, screwed. Maybe screwed up would be more descriptive. strange? odd?

You know, Autumn, our regular conversations...

Yeah, the old screwing around thing.

What do you think for a name, Riette. We're still tossing this around. Screwed?

Defenitely! Everyone loves screwing!

I don't know, how about Discombobulated? Screwey? Babble? Blather? Babylon? BabbleOn?

How 'bout ScrewOn?

I would appreciate a Conference called "International Conflicts", to be able to provide focused topics on all these things that sometimes are religiously, politically or militarily slugged out. Appropriate topics from other conferences ought to be welcome there, too. Maybe this would also draw visitors from other places than Austin, Colorado, Switzerland or Frankfurt to the Spring. International folks, who report of conflicts in their area. Stuff that makes the news, and stuff that never makes the news. I guess if the Spring would "market" services like that to a more international community - perhaps also conferences on continents or areas, like AFRICA or SOUTH-AMERICA, EASTERN-EUROPE, ASIA, NEAR-EAST, MIDDLE-EAST, etc. - we (!) might gain more importance. People from e.g. Cuba discussing things, and reporting on state of affairs in their country, people from the balkans, etc. There are a lot of people in the internet - and a lot of peoples! (Admittedly, not all speak english; what to do?). What does the Spring say to my proposals? (Spring-time is proposal-time on the Spring, and these are mine to you. As is custom around this place at this time - two current cases proove the fact -, you mustn't refuse my plea.)

sounds very intriguing... you wanna host your proposed conference?

sounds good to me! but we do have people from other parts of the world who visit. need to be careful that this place doesn't turn into something ugly, you know what i mean? a place for discussion/reporting not for slander and hate.

Yes, there's always that. But it's part of live, and part of a community to live with things like that. I mean, look at what happens right now in the Kosovo, THIS really confuses me. I'd love to have a dedicated conference where we could have people discuss things, present view points, etc. Report on what they saw or heard. Here in Germany, news fail us miserably in this matter. Anyway, doesn't the Spring have hosts to straighten things out? Isn't this like a benevolent dictatorship? I would not think this would influence most other places that much - see how much traffic the whole DROOL thing has, and have my paths ever crossed with somebody regularly posting there? Not yet, and they don't bother about COLLECTING or MEDIA or GARDEN, etc. Wolf, do you think we should be brave and see what the world tells us? Or do you think I'm too naive on that area (might well be...). I think that would, ahem, be exciting, any which way...

i like the idea, Alexander. with regard to the benevolent dictatorship of hosts (love the expression): yes, hosts do have a certain amount of control over conferences. However, to my knowledge the tools aren't very well developed - in theory there is "scribbling" available, although the only way to do this seems to be through the web interface. also, sites/users can be banned from a conference, but i believe these settings can only be changed by the Yapp administrator, who is terry (and possibly wer - I don't know) so, whilst attracting lots of new ppl would be nice it seems to me that the tools required for dealing with them aren't yet in place. any comments anyone?

Good idea. Cut the conference name down to one word like conflict and get in touch with the Jimmy Carter Institute in Georgia that tracks conflicts worldwide. Maybe they could get behind this? Go fer it!

I think you can scribble from telnet, too, although I've never tried...whenever Terry scribbles, his responses show that they have been scribbled, whereas mine are just blank... and as for banning, it is much easier to include a select group of sites/users than it is to ban the same... Give me a yes on the host question and a suitable one word title if you would prefer one other than what Terry suggested, and I'll set it up, Alexander! (well, you can say no as well I guess...)

Explain this scribble thing to me, pls. How to put annotations into already posted mail (with offensive content, e.g.)? E-Mail the answer, pls. I'd co-host as soon as at least two others are willing to share responsibility. I'd like the other two to be from different continents, too, so we have three hosts from three continents... Less bias, perhaps... Need not all be boys, either... What are the limits on naming conferences? Must it be ONE (1) word? Any more feedback, please. This ought to be discussed (& later okayed, perhaps) by more Spring-folks, too, or it's no good. Wolf is right about this likely not being as tame as e.g. Travels or Music...

when you scribble, you delete an already posted response, I'm not sure I understand your annotation question (maybe because I've only been awake twenty minutes and haven't had near enough coffee yet...) let me know when I should create the world conf...

or maybe worldviews would be a good name...

or globaltalk...

No, that's all slightly off my point. It's International Conflicts, because global would in may cases be too much, world - the same. What if this basically just impacts two small nations, or internal skirmishes, such as the Karen people vs. the Thai army (or was it Burmese?). With annotations I mean, editing a posting so you take out offensive stuff and leave Note of your censorship without deleting everything... Good morning, my friend. May your coffee be a good one! ************************************* Any suggestions to who would host with me? Any Africans or Asians on this here Spring who'd be interested? Please, I'd like to hear more people's opinions on this!

none I know of...currently just North Americans and Europeans... our former African turned European is currently unavailable in Africa... two cups down, more on the way...

We are strongly impacted here by these international struggles, more than you'd probably notice in the US. Perhaps that's why I feel a certain urge. But it must be supported by more people around here. When �calan, leader of kurdish party PKK was kidnapped in Africa and flown to Turkey for prosecution, we had quite the uproar here. We already in the past had these people block motorways, drenching themselves (and german police) with gasoline. Some people set fire to themselves, to get some attention to their plight. This time, they stormed Greece institutions - embassies, tourism agencies - and kidnapped people for some hours. The attempt to storm the Israeli embassy in Berlin ended in Israeli security shooting several people, three of which died. Frankfurt was full with police in full riot gear, the Turkish embassy turned into a fortress. (This even lead to some important superstar-staff meetings in February not taking place: the city was partly not accessible, and the places we wanted to meet were all closed...) Today, I walked by Alte Oper (the Old Opera) in Frankfurt, and there was a stage, and people shouting and signs held up. It was a demonstration of Serbians, protesting the Nato-bombing of their country. In Frankfurt, many Serbians (and other ex-Jugoslavian people) live. The demonstrators were shouting that Nato would be killing civilians and destroying their homes. Some others were booing, shouting that the Serbians started destroying homes first. Lots of police there, but not as much as you'd expect. German politics are mainly behind Nato's attacks. Still, the people are not all happy about the first German military venture since 1945. Also, some are not sure NATO had a proper mandate to attack at all, no matter what cause this served. Still, Nato does what they do anyways, and in the meantime, thousands get killed every day. Since Jugovslavia attacked a village on Albanian soil, the aspect of "commiting ground forces" gains more plausibility. An event I seriously dread. Even after the ongoing large-scale fighting will be over, there are enough tensions on all sides to make living together extremely interesting. It's Bosnia all over again. I admit that things like this are a mess. But what do we know about it? Right, only what they tell us. We can't do anything. Or can we? With this tool here, everybody and every side could tell everybody else how they see things. Maybe somebody learns something. Maybe finally sees individuals on the other side, not just "them". Maybe we get the news they keep from us...

It is an excellent prospect, Alexander, the trouble is in advertising the conference and getting correspondants(sp?) and participants from everywhere so that the conference will be what it should be...I've been out of the global mail loop for a while and not sure if I can get back in... do you have "connections" on other continents?

I'd have to rely on the Spring's regulars for that to start off. All my current WWW-accessing contacts are Europeans or Americans. Let's hear from our friends here first. It's important. (The other things come after that, and can been worked on, when it's time for it. Right now, I'd like to know more what other Spring-people think. And I'd like to learn more about a host's options and tools. Then we can rig it up - if agreed upon favorably by more folks here - and then work on populating it. And see if it works out.)

this conference sounds really really interesting, Alexander - great idea! going back to the scribbling/editing thing: i think that there is always a role that negativity can play in a post. so, perhaps, having a "selective" edit-out tool is not so helpful. To my mind a post either stays as a genuine opinion of a person (no matter how seemingly objectionable) or it is removed entirely because it blatantly flagrates one of the rules/customs. incidentally, do we have any rules/customs? :-)

i think it's all good in the end. i like worldview because this opens up for discussions on culture and opinions on different things up to and including conflicts. are you wanting a clashing of opinions type thing or are you wanting an enlightening fact finding conference on what's really going on? and we do have some rules of engagement...at least i remember discussing them but don't remember where in the heck they are.

something tells me they were in porch somewhere.....