I am also grateful that, despite all reason, you stepped up and took over! Dan Matyola *https://tinyurl.com/DJM-Pentax-Gallery <https://tinyurl.com/DJM-Pentax-Gallery>*
On Fri, Jan 1, 2021 at 5:26 PM Doug Brewer <d...@dougbrewerphoto.com> wrote: > sort of. > > During the Christmas season of 2000, while I worked on a museum project > for a local university, I got a call from Don Nelson, a friend and > Pentax sales guy some of you will remember from GFM. He told me that > Pentax USA, which carried the PAML and PDML on its website, was looking > to get out of the email list game because of potential liability issues > arising from unsanctioned and borderline dangerously irresponsible > technical and repair advice getting posted to the PDML. > > Don then asked if I knew anyone who could take it over. I thought about > a few members I knew at the time, even reached out to one or two, who > pretty much laughed, and I reported back to Don that there didn't seem > to be much interest. He said ok. > > A couple days later, a nice woman from the marketing department at > Pentax called to tell me she had heard from Don that I would like to be > considered for the role of List Guy. After a long pause, followed by > some muttering and me repeating "wait, what?" a few times, the nice > woman in marketing assured me that Don said I was very interested. > > That was Don, as those of you who knew him would agree. > > I told the nice woman that I was not a list guy by any stretch of the > imagination. I wasn't a software guy, didn't know anything about how to > run an email list, was in all things comprehensively incompetent and > liked it that way, and so on. > > The nice woman in marketing was unimpressed, so it was decided. I > begrudgingly agreed that I would download some list software packages > and see if I could make any sense of them. After that, I said, I'd get > back to her in a week or so with my decision. The nice woman in > marketing rang off. > > That afternoon I found and downloaded some software, installed it, and > poked around for a few minutes until I had to do something with my > actual job. The only thing I had really discerned from my brief time > with the software was that I was out of my depth and needed some serious > hours with it before I could even begin to think about whether or not I > would take over the PDML. > > Some time that night the PDML broke. > > The next day, the nice woman in marketing called to tell me that the guy > who worked at the advertising agency that handled the Pentax USA website > and was the only one there who knew the list software and how it > interfaced with the website was off on Christmas vacation and the server > was down and hey, she would email me a list of everyone who was > subscribed to the PDML. Good luck and godspeed, it was now my baby. > > I still can't tell you how I got it going, but here we are, and I'm > grateful for it. > > Happy New Year, kids. > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
