[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > One Comment about the advertising with the e-mail. > > Don't do it! > > That's the sort of thing that could run me off from this list faster then any thing >else. Would you be willing to pay a subscription fee to get the list mail then? How do you suggest we afford the service? Would you prefer twice-yearly fund drives like they do for public broadcasting? It's been free because I managed to get a good deal at Colorado Supernet for the last 6 years. That made it cost so little (and was helped by some donations and the proceeds of an auction) that my business carried it these last few years. It cost $14.95/mo plus my time, which was gladly given because it has also been good for my business. But SuperNet got bought out by Qwest/US West, and because SuperNet isn't profitable enough for the big wheels, the wheels are closing down that service. The hard, cold Morlocks meet the Eloi of the Internet. In a perfect world advertising serves to connect people who have needs to products and services that answer those needs, and that's the goal we would try to attain. I am all too aware that in our real world, advertising also tries to *create* needs and wants and stick a straw into your wallet and suck hard. We all know that activity sucks, but is there any creative solution that we can come up with where we can generate enough cash to pay for the infrastructure we need to make this list a success? Lists do not live by email alone. Perhaps we can do a mix of paid subscriptions with no advertising with some freebie subscriptions that come with a helping thinly sliced spam. How about the USGS buying up a block and giving them out to employees? Maybe people with deeper pockets could fund subscriptions for students who are full of bright ideas, but no money. Maybe we could charge enough for advertising so that there wouldn't be many (but if there were none, that wouldn't help) Or maybe the ads wouldn't be so bad or common anyway. Maybe we could do a mix of donations, light advertising, auctions, and fund drives. But all that work takes volunteers or paid staff. Advertising is the easiest solution. If you don't want it at all, get creative, and not to put too fine a point on it, put your money where your mouth is. The form that these will take has not been decided yet anyway. All that's been talked about is that the service can be offered and that advertising would be a covenant way to afford it. As Henry D. Thoreau once said, "All great enterprises should be self-supporting." How about some ideas instead of complaints? -- - Bill Thoen ------------------------------------------------------------ GISnet, 1401 Walnut St., Suite C, Boulder, CO 80302 tel: 303-786-9961, fax: 303-443-4856 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.ctmap.com/gisnet ------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from this list, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put "unsubscribe MAPINFO-L" in the message body, or contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
