Hope I'm not too late, Im in $20 to start and a monthly fee if needed. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > 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 > > -- > Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com > -- > Author: > INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Fat City Network Services -- (858) 538-5051 FAX: (858) 538-5051 > San Diego, California -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message > to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in > the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L > (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may > also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
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