Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 07:22:54 -0800
Reply-To: Ron Bloomquist <roadcow@MCN.ORG>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Ron Bloomquist <roadcow@MCN.ORG>
Subject: Re: ATTENTION ALL//STICKER PROCEDES-----> INTO FUND RAISER FOR
GERRY UPGRADE?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Hi Volks,
*MtnGal wrote:
ATTENTION ALL//STICKER PROCEDES-----> INTO FUND RAISER FOR GERRY UPGRADE?
..... May I open the forum to think about a wonderful way to turn these
stickers into a sort of fund raiser for GERRY's Upgrade fund?
>snip<
I mean.... >snap<
Something clicked in my head and I spent most of the night tossing and
turning just thinking about the above sentence and I think I have figured
out the problem and... da da.. the solution!!
The problem.
The vanagon list is free. FREE? Well, not really free; I had to buy a
computer and a modem and sign up and pay my local server and pay my phone
bill....but anyway, that's my "free" end of it.
And, I understand that "Gerry" operates at ReliTech in Washington, DC., a
company that specializes in Windows NT, Novell Netware and Macintosh
training, consulting, and systems integration ( could it be that Gerry is
there in some closet for free?... I mean as maybe a write-off or possibly
just out of the good PR of that company? And, I understand that the list
moderator is Tom Carrington. Is he also doing this for.... free?
If so... WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? People! We are not living in a
socialist state any more. We are living in the most powerful market driven
economy country in the world and here we are fooling around with a FREE
vanagon list. People. This has got to stop! We have Volks offering up
their thoughts and opinions for free? There have been Volks designing
stickers and other Volks hosting them on their own servers for free!! There
have been people offering opinions concerning sticker design improvements
and type face changes for...free? No NO NO! It is a well known fact that
if something is free, well, it probably ain't worth much.
I have a....Solution.!!
Start charging and I'm not just talking fifty bucks or more a sticker.
It seems to me that all we will have to do is start collecting those .02
cents that show up many times a day. If they were collected (call it seed
money) we would then be able to hire a finance officer for Gerry. The
finance officer would then monitor the e-mail conversations on the list;
watching for any formerly free vanagon information. If someone e-mails in a
question about an alternator problem and someone else e-mails in a
suggestion for a possible fix... that should be worth a couple of bucks to
the person with the problem. If the suggestion actually works.... Hey ten
bucks. The finance officer would collect the fee from the person with the
problem via credit card. (I forgot to mention. You will hence forth have
to submit a credit card number to be a member of this list.) If you don't
want to go along with this... you are immediately tossed back into
cyberspace.
Okay, say you have a problem that is something more major. Endless burping
problem? If solved, that alone has got to be worth twenty bucks; just for
the peace of mind. Leaking heads, water in the oil hey! We are starting to
talk serious cash now! In no time we could buy a whole new Gerry and even
rent a new building to house it. Maybe even an armed guard.
Anyway. What I am trying to get to is this:
I want the vanagon sticker to be worth something; to mean something when
other people see it. Say like someone is in a vanagon and they are broke
down beside the road. Here we come along and pull off to the side of the
road just ahead of them. They will look at us HOPEFULLY, wiping grease off
their hands, then spot our shiny vanagon sticker in our rear window and.....
RUN!
Opps, coffee is done.
Happy Friday,
Ron Bloomquist