[Coco] CoCo Fest video and chat

[Mark McDougall]

Mark Marlette wrote:

> There are an endless number of excuses on why one could not make it.
>  Some indicate money, schedule conflicts, etc. All valid at some
> point in time but after 25yrs, people that have never attend a fest,
> that means it is not a priority.

This is not a flame, but simply MHO.

I must admit to being somewhat bemused to read your 'rant'. I suspect it 
is borne out of frustration and no doubt compounded by the fact that 
you're a vendor. I also admit that I have no idea what your involvement 
(if any) was in the organisation of the event.

But this is how it read to me...

"How dare you not attend! How dare you not be interested enough to 
re-arrange your life and finances around attending! If you are reading 
this newsgroup, then you are *obliged* to make it a priority!!!"

Obviously that is not your intention, but that is how it came across to 
*me*.

Then you went on to suggest how people could better manage their time 
and finances, which I found a tad rude and condescending. Again, I hope, 
not your intention.

I would suggest your tact should've been more along the lines of...

"CoCoFest needs attendees to survive. Numbers are dwindling and the fest 
is in danger of becoming inviable. So please, if you have been thinking 
about coming along in the last few years, try to make the effort next 
year - it could well be the last and you'll never have the opportunity 
again."

Perhaps, as others have suggested, advertising is the key to the 
problem. Sadly, I suspect not.

The fact is, the CoCo enthusiast user base is dwindling as I suspect a 
lot of those who actually had a CoCo in its heyday reach their twilight 
years. And that generally means less mobility, less money.

And those who hang their hopes on an untapped resource of past users who 
have no idea that a CoCo community is thriving today - seriously, how 
many can there be? A trickle at best. People with *any* trace of 
interest left in their CoCo would've googled it years ago.

So I'm not sure who else an increased advertising effort would reach?!?

FWIW, I'm only on the periphery of the CoCo community - I did own one in 
its heydey and do have some interest in the CoCo although at this point 
I don't actually own one. Living in Australia a trip to the fest was out 
of the question, but I ask myself if circumstances were different and it 
"only" cost me, say USD$300 to attend the fest, would I? It would be 
hard for me to justify that expense (to the better-half even more-so). 
So now I feel off-side with Mark Marlette...

I think you also need to realise that the CoCo means different things to 
different people. I'm interested solely for nostalgic reasons. I'm not 
interested in running OS/9 from a CF - because I never ran it when I 
owned a CoCo. I'm not interested in writing little BASIC programs on the 
CoCo - I program for a living and have worked on everything from PIC 
micros though 68K through PCs and even minis & mainframes in the early 
days. I'm interested in reliving my CoCo days as *I* remember them... 
playing games was about it for me on the CoCo 1. So what's in a fest for 
me? Believe me, I can appreciate those who get a buzz out of discussing 
how to configure Nitros9 to boot from CF, but I'm not about to spend a 
significant amount of money and travel hundreds of miles just to see a 
CoCo sitting on a desk running a serial terminal under OS/9...

By all means, encourage people to go - let them know the situation with 
future fests is tenuous - but don't make them feel guilty for not 
attending. (It's a hobby, not a religion) ;)

"The whippings will continue until morale improves!"

Anyway, my AUD$0.02 worth.

Regards,
Mark