[Coco] Short Sunday CoCoFest WebCam

Tue May 2 18:30:35 EDT 2006

All,

I was afraid that this thread was going to turn to this. Unfortunately the
current Coco community is to small for this type of in fighting. I don't
think that anyone could argue against your commitment and contributions
to the Coco community. At the same time I don't think that you would question
the commitment of Mark, Boisy, The Glenside group, etc. I would hope that
we could take some of the energy spent in this flamewar and use it to find
ways to get more people involved with the Coco. During the run of the Coco
Radio Shack sold hundreds of thousands of Cocos. Most of the users were like
me and either packed up their machine or threw it out as they moved on to
PCs, Macs, Suns, etc. Those are the people we need to reach out to and find
a way to bring them back.

As far as the Coco fest goes it would be nice to see more people make an effort
to attend. The truth is as you and others have pointed out that some people
don't have the resources to go. When I say resources I'm talking about financial
as well as time or even interest. You may want to consider trying to make a trip
to the fest as a vendor. Bring as much product as you can fit into a suitcase.
If you need a pc to run demos on let me know and you can borrow one of my computers.
I'll bet that the revenue you make selling your products will pay for the trip.
Either out right at the show or as increased sales over the next year. Last year
what I bought from Cloud9 was a small part of what I bought from them over the
next year and still plan on buying in the future when they start taking orders
again! All anyone is doing is asking you to try the final decision is yours.

Like Boisy I have mixed feelings about the webcam. I hope that people don't use
the ability to see what goes on there as an excuse not to come to the fest. On
the other hand it gives people that wouldn't have gone anyhow a chance to see
what happens at the fests. As you pointed out after seeing the what went on at
the fest made mention that they would be sure to attend next year.

Can we all just get along! :-) Or at least spend some of the energy devoted to
this flamewar to finding ways to improve the attendance at future fests.

Frank

On Tue, May 02, 2006 at 03:50:40PM -0500, Roger Taylor wrote:
> I though the title of this message speaks volumes to several people who I 
> have no beef with, just an opinion to share back.
> 
> What happened during the Weekend-Long-CoCo-Fest in Chicago was that some of 
> us managed to give some interested parties the ability to see what they are 
> missing each year, or not, or to see people they miss, or to see people 
> they have never seen before, or WhatEver people wanted to look in 
> for.  This webcam event lasted several hours on SUNDAY AFTERNOON.  It was 
> short and it was fun.  There was no evil plan to sit at home and mooch off 
> of the festgoers who flew in or drove for days to be in Chicago.  It seems 
> like I'm getting part of the blame for the lack of attendees, but I'm not 
> sure if I'm interpreting the attacks well enough to know if this is really 
> true or not.  I hope it's not.
> 
> What I won't do is give excuses for not being able to attend a single CoCo 
> fest in CoCo history.  Boy that sure does sound bad to some, but since I 
> can relate to hundreds more CoCo users who are in the same boat with the 
> same paddles, I'm not ashamed to admit that I haven't been able to afford 
> to make these kinds of trips, EVER.  I haven't even taken but one decent 
> vacation in another state and that was when I was married and it was our 
> honeymoon.
> 
> Folks, I'm not rich.  I work hard every day doing computer work and my real 
> job, but I'm a single dad who's been through some ROUGH ASS TIMES, and I 
> mean poor ass times where some of you might think your world is coming to 
> an end if it happened to you.  You can sit back and point fingers at why 
> the CoCo fests aren't just packed with hundreds of people flying in for the 
> weekend, but you can't point one finger at me for being one of the most 
> dedicated damn CoCo users in CoCo history.  I've been there since '80 in my 
> own way while you've been there in your way.  We are all different.  We all 
> contribute in different ways.  Some of us are RICH.  Some are POOR.  But 
> the fact that we are all still here talking in a CoCo mailing list means 
> that we all play a part; a good part.  Nobody is doing anything WRONG at 
> any time by sticking with the CoCo and sharing information using a website, 
> a webcam, a mailing list, a forum, or a newsgroup.  It's all the same; it's 
> called sharing.
> 
> Also, just because I run a popular web site doesn't mean I am a superhero, 
> a filthy rich programmer who flies all around the U.S. to special events, 
> or a person who has to explain why my life is not your life.  What I have 
> is a huge love for programming that started on the CoCo and will partly 
> remain with the CoCo as long as people show interest and appreciate what I 
> create.  I worked my ass off for unGODLY hours creating what people use 
> everyday and it makes me sleep good at night knowing that I'm NOT RICH off 
> of this.  Every penny I have made from my CoCo efforts have almost always 
> gone back into hosting, internet costs, upgrading computer equipment, 
> etc.  I even advertise for other CoCo businesses and try to get people to 
> go to their websites by placing their banners right up top for years 
> without ever asking for anything back except a reciprical link.  I'm by no 
> means a greedy CoCo user and I refuse to accept an attack to defame my 
> efforts.  The webcam efforts was a joint idea brought up by some recognized 
> names who though it would be neat.  Why not go attack them?  Because it's 
> not the right thing to do to anybody, that's why.
> 
> So far, everybody I talk to appreciates things I do in the CoCo 
> community.  That is, up until now.  This is a first, men... a first.  By 
> turning on a webcam for maybe 2 hours this past Sunday I suddenly became 
> the bad guy just because it was viewed on my web site, our web site.  Come 
> on.  Give me a break here, relax, boot up an old favorite CoCo game or 
> something, grab a Coke, and grin because we are all still here making it 
> happen and fighting the good fight... to make the CoCo not forgotten.
> 
> That's all I will say.  I have way too many chores to do today to get 
> caught up in a pointless debate that will only hurt us, but I deserved to 
> say something back in my defense, so I did.
> 
> Have a great day, keep the CoCo projects coming, and show us something new 
> no matter where you're from or how small you think you are.  If you're into 
> the CoCo, we're into you.  Keep up the great work, EVERYBODY.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Roger Taylor
> 
> 
> -- 
> Coco mailing list
> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco