[Coco] CoCo Fest video and chat

[Mark Marlette]

Mark,

Well put, to each their own.

Not frustrated at all from a vendor's view point. I had nothing new 
this year. Sales were higher than I expected. My inventory was down 
from over $12kUSD to just a bit over $3k at tax time. Sold out of 
almost everything.

 From an attendee's maybe. I'm not amused by ones that don't attend 
suggestion how it should be done. I don't care for big talkers 
either, more in favor of the doers.

Anyones that knows me will tell you that you know exactly where you 
stand with me on any point we are discussing. Call it bold, highly 
opinionated, or an ass? I will let you know.

What I am guilty of is passionate about the CoCo. With that, emotion 
is present. :)

Hundreds of miles??? Aren't you in AU?????

Mark





At 5/1/2006 08:53 PM, you wrote:

>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
>
>--
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>
>
>
>
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