Hola,
I think a subscription is the best solution. I have learned too much reading
the solutions to the posts that everyday show up, and mines too.
Can count on me !!!
Regards,
Ramon E. Estevez
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Dominican Republic
809-565-3121
-----Original Message-----
Sent: 28 August 2001 23:29
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
Ok, now that I have your attention, please read the following message from
Bruce Bergman,
owner of fatcity.com. It concerns the future of this list.
Please read the entire message before replying.
Thank you.
Jared Still ( List Owner )
-------------------------------------------
Hello ORACLE-L list members --
I would like to take a few minutes of your time for a "State of the Union"
address, if you can call it that. This is a rather serious message, and I
request that you take the time to read this message entirely. I've got a
problem that needs resolution this week, and I'm hoping you folks can help
me come to a conclusion. This message turned out to be fairly
long-winded, so please excuse me for that. :-)
Fat City (fatcity.com) is my company, and I am the provider of the list
services that you receive ORACLE-L through. I've been hosting Internet
mailing lists for over 10 years, and carry quite a few lists, including a
big selection of Oracle-related lists (14, in fact). Fat City has always
been a labor of love for me. Over the years it has rarely generated any
income at all, and it usually does not cover my expenses -- most of the
time
it is a monthly loss for me. The vast majority of my 60+ mailing lists
have
been hosted for free, at my expense (as is the ORACLE-L list, for example).
Yet I have absorbed these costs because I enjoy hosting discussion lists
and I know a lot of lists can't afford to pay for quality service.
I am soon to be one of the Rhythms Orphans. Rhythms, my DSL provider, has
gone bankrupt and will be out of business by 10-Sep-2001. I need to find
another provider of high-speed Internet in order to continue operations. I
am at the point of either folding shop completely and going out of business
myself, or trying to make Fat City a viable, money-making endeavor. I need
to make this decision by this Friday (for financial and planning reasons).
After Friday, I am committed one way or the other.
My upstream ISP and I are on very good terms, and in fact, I've been a
customer of theirs since 1985! As a result, they have graciously offered
to help me out of this situation at considerable expense to themselves.
I'm not at liberty to discuss the terms of the contract I would engage in
with them, but suffice to say that is one of those once-in-a-lifetime
opportunities that I'd be a fool to pass up. I have this offer personally
from the President of that company, if I want it. Simply said, my ability
to take them up on their offer and switch Fat City over to a dedicated T1
or
better solution revolves around being able to generate quite a bit of
additional
income per month, and very soon. In an effort to be open and up-front with
you folks about this, I basically need to generate an additional $500 more
per
month. Right now that seems daunting, but I've been working hard to line up
that
additional income, and I believe I can do it. Just not right away. My
estimates are that it will take me four or five months to come up to that
level. I need to get out there and sell website hosting and list hosting
packages, and get new customers. That takes time, unfortunately. I need a
buffer to enable me to get past this startup phase.
After some discussions with Jared (the list owner), and some encouragement
from him, I am coming to you to ask for you help in keeping Fat City
financially afloat until I can be self sufficient. I'm not asking for a
specific dollar amount from anyone, nor am I *expecting* anything from you
folks. But if it is within your power to contribute some money towards
this
end (and yes, I know these are hard financial times for everyone), I am
hoping you can help. If I can get sufficient promise of funds that will
see
me through the next few months, I am willing to jump in with both feet and
make Fat City a viable business. If it looks like the contributions are
not
sufficient to enable me to do that, I will cease operations within the next
45-60 days.
Let me be clear about a few things: If I *do* cease operations, I will give
all of my lists time to find new list providers, and will make every effort
to aid the shift over to the new provider, provide list dumps, archives,
mail forwarding, etc. Even though Rhythms goes out of business on
10-Sep-2001, I have secured service until at least 10-Oct-2001 to enable
this to happen. So don't worry about having to rush into your conversion
if
things don't work out. I would also like to clearly state that this is not
some attempt to blackmail or coerce anyone into coming up with money. This
will either succeed or fail based on what you folks can comfortably and
willingly contribute. If I had the ability to cover this startup period
myself,
I would definitely do so. If Fat City ultimately goes under, it wil NOT be
your fault, and I hold no one to blame. That's just how the Internet cards
are right now. I do not want anyone to contribute if they don't have
the money, or if things are tight at home, or anything like that. I would
like contributions to be made from those who are able to make such a
contribution willingly.
Also, I don't want anyone to send any money right now. Basically I just
want a show of hands of those who could contribute something to this cause.
Send me ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) or Jared ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) an E-mail saying
what amount you'd be willing to contribute. If you would rather donate
anonymously, perhaps Jared could collect those donations. I will "pass
around the hat" until Friday morning, at which point I'll see if there were
sufficient pledges to enable me to move forward. If it seems like there
is,
then I will come up with a way for you to honor your pledge (probably
either
directly to me via check or via PayPal, most likely). The funds can be
collected in the next few weeks, but I must make my decision on Friday. I
apologize for the late notice on this, but I was not given this offer by my
ISP until late last week.
In return for your contributions, I promise the following things:
- I will use all contributions ONLY for the express purpose of paying for
my
Internet service costs
- I will continue to host the ORACLE-L list for free for the forseeable,
indefinite future
- I will make no more requests of this list for contributions of this sort
- I will provide a full accounting and update to the list on the costs and
how the funds are being used
- I will make improvements to the list that will enhance your features and
performance (for example, faster turn-around on list postings, etc)
- I will at least carry though for the next calendar year unless I have
catastrophic financial failure
Please note that the ODTUG organization is already making a considerable
contribution by way of a monthly payment for service, so they are already
aware of this situation and are actively helping out. There are a good
number of people here who are on the ODTUG lists too, so I wanted to point
that out ahead of time and let you know that they are being very helpful.
Another way you could contribute would be to come to Fat City for your list
hosting or website hosting needs. I had just started offering website
hosting services before this mess started, and obviously, a monthly paying
customer is far better than a one-time contribution. If you go to
http://www.fatcity.com and click on the "Website Hosting" link, you can
check out the packages I offer. In an effort to get new customers, I am
willing to waive all setup fees in order to bring new customers on board.
If you become a customer here in the next couple of months, that would help
tremendously. If you have an interest in hosting your website (personal or
business) with us, -or- a want to start a new mailing list, please contact
me for details.
I know this is a lot to ask of you folks. You are entirely welcome to just
tell me to jump in a lake, and that that's how business is right now. But
I
know many of you personally, either from ODTUG conferences or from other
Oracle events, and I also know how staunchly you support this mailing list
with useful information, humor, helpfulness and an eye toward quality. I
would like to think that you find Fat City to be the best place to host
your
list, and that you will want to help me out so that I can continue to
provide the list to you folks free of charge. I made a promise to Jared
years ago to host this list for free because I think it is one of the best
and most valuable resources out there. I intend to honor that promise to
him by continuing to provide it for free. If it turns out that I must
close
shop and call it quits, at least I will have known I did my best to make it
succeed, and I did so without having to reneg on committments I had
made in the past.
I am being open and honest with everyone because I believe that this is the
best way to succeed. I believe you appreciate this kind of approach, and I
want you to know that regardless of what happens, I certainly appreciate
every consideration you give this request. Whether or not this succeeds, I
know that you are a great group of people and I wish this list the best
luck
in this life, or the next. :-)
Remember, time is of the essence. The sooner I hear from people who
can help, the sooner I can nail down a line of approach. If you have any
questions or concerns, please E-mail me.
Thanks everyone!
Bruce Bergman
President, Fat City Network Services
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Author: Robertson Lee - lerobe
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Author: Ramon Estevez
INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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