RE: [cobalt-users] Re: Have I just gone insane about (moving) these Lists?

["David J. Duffner - NWCWEB.com" <cobalt@xxxxxxxxxx>]

>-----Original Message-----
>From: cobalt-users-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
>[mailto:cobalt-users-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bruce 
>Timberlake
>Sent: Monday, May 10, 2004 4:27 PM
>Subject: [cobalt-users] Re: Have I just gone insane about 
>(moving) these Lists?
>
>
>> 	#6 - I see constant voting posts for Bruce to take the
>> lead on this problem and determine what to do next.  I'm with
>> that decision as I think he personally did a damn good job with
>> it until his demise with Sun.  So we need to hear from him to
>> determine what's next, but again, if it's not this week you
>> get to see dead air.
>
>There was a fundamental misunderstanding on my part about what 
>had been proposed for "moving the lists."  As far as I was concerned, 
>moving the lists meant setting up new lists on another server, and hopefully 
>importing the content/archived postings from the Cobalt/Sun list into the 
>new one.  Jeff et al. had been considering "forcibly" signing up email 
>addresses, which have posted to the Sun lists in the last 3-12 months,
>onto the new lists.

	Nope, sounds like you had the understanding I had?  Since the
original home dies, it's got to move somewhere.  As long as it's 
functional and not hijacked for personal interests by the hosts,
that sounds like a clean move to me...

	On the 'forced' move, I think Craig outlined that Sun has a
Privacy Policy which would prevent that from happening as to not
compromise their 'clients'.  I'm 100% for policies like that, you'll
lose some who aren't paying attention but that's normal in a List 
move.  Would also dump some of the spammer's fake accounts that
have baragged me with virii and viagra ads <Grin>.

>> 	#8 - Independent 3rd Party portal/website/whatever to
>> handle all this.  It's obvious that those trying to do something,
>> however genuine and innocent the offers, are being perceived as
>> trying to make a buck or create a new advertising platform for
>> Cobalt Lists and support.
>
>I think everyone has the right to do this... heck, I even have 
>my own Cobalt site.  Everyone has their own niche of expertise.
>Trying to combine the majority, or even a subset, under one common
>"provider" would be tricky at best.

	Well possibly I'm not outlining this clearly, what I'm saying
is a 'resource center' where at least lists and links of all that's
out there are in one place.  Not physically moving all of that into
one house, even I'm not that adventurous! <Grin>

>> 	In past posts, I've outlined and responded to layouts about
>> how to deal with those offering services and other items.  Should
>> they be charged to list, etc.  My answer then, as it is now, is
>> that a one-stop shop with paid/unpaid listings for premium services
>> should be considered as a revenue source to cover the basic expenses
>> of producing the 'portal' and housing the lists in general.  Not
>> making a profit, but covering the wholesale expenses related to
>> having something like this.
>
>I agree that having one mega-portal with PKGs, HOWTOs, forums, 
>mailing list archives, etc. would be Cobalt utopia. Heck, *any* community 
>would love to have a resource like that I think! But I just don't see how it 
>can be done.  
>
>Curious - are there any "similar" products/communities we can 
>look at which have gone through this sort of issue and see what solutions 
>they have? Any sort of "blueprint for a successful and harmonious online 
>community"?? :)

	Hmmm, how about Linux.org?  That's really what I'm thinking of 
in my head.  Linux is all over the road, obviously, with flavors from
SCO, Cobalt, Red Hat and quite a few others.  But that site is the Linux
'portal' with basic and common information, along with links to other
resources and 'paid' listings from those who offer services.  Seems to
have worked quite well for them, even SCO hasn't gone after them at this
point! 

	As far as packages, etc. that's easily handled with existing 
software that could list all the packages, their author, links back to
the author's website, etc.  It should be easily set up to where their
latest/stable release is in one spot with a common name (been done 
before) and they dump a copy to that name when an update has occurred.
That way you don't spend weeks changing listings.  Also gives the user
an option to find out if it's free or has a charge (if one exists).
Kind of a download.com version, I've got to hunt up sites where I've 
seen this done and used it myself.

	Forums/How To's:  See Ensim/EV1 Servers.  There's some support
from Ensim on their site, but both Forums are chock full of discussions
and HOW-TO's.  Use them daily, participate in them daily.  At least 
3-4 PHP-based forum packages that could handle the job without major
upkeep, allows for moderators to pick up some of the burden.  Ensim OS
hack, support, mods, etc. for the most part are done in these two places
far more than by Ensim directly.  And those two exist without a central
site that provides useful info and directs you to these resources.

	Trust me, I wouldn't come out swinging with these unless I knew
they already existed and used/tested them myself.  I'm not saying this
is a minor undertaking, but the end result would be worth the efforts.
Again, we have to have spare space/bandwidth around that could be 
dontated, etc. to house parts of the whole, with the main website doing
the directing.

      David J. Duffner
      VP Operations
      NWC Corporation
      NWCWEB.com
      
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