I guess it had to come. But I think we need to understand just what the
untold rules may be. (Bill don't get me wrong here, but a point or two
needs to be made... your conduct and intent via this list must be considered
a gem amongst stones.)
Last week another list that also seems to be struggling around to find a
home, GISList, had a poor chap from India looking for what I thought was a
legitimate question about GIS. One of that list's members felt that since
he exposed the name of his company, email, and WEB and that he was looking
for additional work in the area of GIS (therefore his GIS question), it had
to be self promotion; an AD if you will. (The outcome - the list didn't give
a Hoot, Bill included!)
So now we are about to embark on to the wild side and subscribe with our
soul and $. Can any one of us use the list as Bill admits "It cost
$14.95/mo plus my time, which was gladly given because it has also been good
for my business." Well a $14.95 per month advertisement budget for a small
company seems dam reasonable. Ok, pay your $15/month and you too can deliver
all sorts of self serving advice and direct ads?
Alternatively, what happens if we accept the advertisement model? We give
great answers to difficult questions and heck we get some business from this
just like Bill did? Worse, what if we step across the line and announce a
product, promote ourselves, or go looking for a hire or job? What is news,
introductions, offers to help, and lastly what is self/company promotion?
Can wish-lists be tolerated?
The idea of ads on an open and free-form list is fraught with the problem of
free-riders and will only call down the management and their nasty-grams on
us. If we have to have them, Ads, I say they MUST be at the bottom - NOT
the top!
While I know and trust Bill over the years to leave plenty of room for all
sorts of activity on this list that is totally edited off others and creates
nasty-grams from less tolerant webmasters, I worry that Bill, our gem, may
someday drift away from us now that he has gained his reputation and others
demand his full attentions. Then what? Yes, I know that a what if or
maybe....
I propose an alternative - possibly MapInfo would sponsor the hosting of the
service as a gift to its partners and leave it up to its freely associated
members to govern content and purpose? Heck, MapInfo must have saved a
million or two just having the list answering all these questions that tend
to go unanswered once they fall into the black-hole of "that's a revenue
source for support" or Yikes, that's too political - delete it right away",
or ...... ???? in Troy.
Later,
MidNight Mapper
aka neil
9/23/00
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