[Coco] Short Sunday CoCoFest WebCam

Tue May 2 18:35:40 EDT 2006

Frank,

Very well put. Some call it flame war, I call it a discussion, and yes 
we can agree to disagree on this from one to another. My points are 
bold and aggressive, that is my nature as I indicated early.

Many say that the CoCo market is not there. Not this year, but at least 
the last three as I recall, Cloud-9 sales at the fest were in the 
thousands. Not bragging, just pointing out what Frank has noted. It is 
a legitimate business. With that comes some nice home run business tax 
shelters and privileges to make these trips for me. Not all can do that 
I'm aware.

Since others have indicated there not so easy history. I want to add 
some to the otherside.  It wasn't easy getting to this point. But with 
hard work it can be done.

I have been divorced twice, the last one cost me a bit over $200K cash. 
I have two wonderful kids, one is just finishing his first year of law 
enforcement training, ready for his second year. My youngest is going 
to graduate high school and start college in the fall. I have a 40acre 
hobby farm with way to many toys. I too like Roger and many on the 
list, work my ass off. Hopefully in the next 3-4 years I will sell my 
farm to developers and retire while under the age of 50. I just turned 
43. I have a GREAT job and a GREAT home business. Things haven't always 
been as good as they are now. Tough road to get here. Don't give up 
your dreams, big or small.

Now before anyone says that I'm blowing my own balloon... Here is my 
point and it is a VERY simple one......

Without a doubt, I am where I am today because of this machine called a 
CoCo. My success in life is attributed to this machine that I AM 
passionate for.

I agree with Roger, enjoy the CoCo. Happy CoCoing to all.

Mark
Cloud-9

Quoting Frank Pittel <fwp at deepthought.com>:

> 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
>
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