Many thanks. Doug for the significant contribution you have made over
the years....and to all who contribute here. For two decades plus,
I've enjoyed the entertainment, skill sharpening information, etc. I've
been a Pentax user since '68. I joined the group looking to sharpen my
skills when I needed to obtain better photographic results to support a
new professional foray into the realm of forensics. I was not
disappointed. And, I surely have enjoyed the entertainment. I'm well
into retirement now and the plans I once had to purchase a camera like
the K1, have changed to focus on something small that i can carry around
with ease and not worry about packing lenses around. Although, I must
admit that I'm tempted from occasionally to purchase a digital camera to
go behind my M42 glass.
I do thank you all. It has been a pleasant and quite educational journey.
Wishing all of you the very best in the New Year.
Otis
On 1/1/2021 17:26, Doug Brewer 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.
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