At 7:28 PM -0800 11/1/00, Rachel Blackman wrote:
>I didn't read Chuq's argument as saying that progress was being stifled...
>just that people /will/ move on, and eventually, people will either find
>that remaining behind is crippling to them or be forced to move on as well.
Thanks, RAchel, for saying what I tried to say. if you put hurdles in
front of your potential members, you'll get a few, but mostly,
they'll go find someone who doesn't and use their service instead.
That's okay if you don't WANT new members, or only want some
pre-defined vision of what a "good" member is, but it's a way to
cause your user base to stagnate and shrivel. I'm not even saying you
have to support stuff -- just deal with it rationally. And slapping
users for something that's not under their control isn't dealing with
it rationally. Demime is a perfectly good alternative. Saying "turn
off that stuff or else" isn't.
I know this from experience, and once I realized what was happening
it was a real eye opener. This is no longer a place where you are The
Only Source For Your Thing, and even if you are, you're 30 seconds
from having a new competitor at egroups. And egroups is a lot easier
for most users to find.
And if that's okay with you, great -- but it's the same as the guy
who decided to keep making buggy whips when the car was invented. You
might keep right on making buggy whips for a long time, but your
clientele will shrink, age and slowly die off, until you do, too. And
AOL going "no text" isn't just inventing the car, it's waking up one
morning to the interstate highway system....
And here's another note. We've done formal user surveys,
professionally done. And they've shown, quite clearly, that 70-80%
want HTML e-mail. If you think the users don't want this stuff,
you're fooling yourself. I enjoy my DVD's of the 60's Avengers in
black and white, but I don't pretend that's how TV ought to be
today...
But this argument isn't new to the list, and the buggy whip cabal
will continue to insist on making buggy whips and if they're happy,
that's fine. But let's not pretend that 1995 was the epitome of
e-mail systems and it's all been downhill from there....
>While I /personally/ happen to think plaintext e-mail makes more sense and
>is friendlier overall, the vast numbers of new users of the Internet are
>being introduced to e-mail as a bright, colorful way of communicating.
I was convinced the day my mom asked for help setting up her buddy
list, so they could IM to each other.... When 75 year old women are
adopting all this stuff, you can't pretend it's a fad.
--
Chuq Von Rospach - Plaidworks Consulting (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
Apple Mail List Gnome (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
Be just, and fear not.
