thanks Doug and i am grateful too to have found this place in 2006 i think... wishing everyone a happy 2021...
On Fri, 1 Jan 2021 17:26:15 -0500 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.
