[NEohioPAL]NEOPal in other metro areas

[Richard B. Ingraham]

I keep reading all these posts from former Cleveland folk or the like,
that they wished they had something like NEOPAL in the area that they
now live in.


Well I have a not so humble suggestion for all of those that long for
that.

START ONE!!!!   :-))


Seriously it's free, it takes very little effort (if you set it up
right), and although it may sound like there is some voodoo involved,
it's simple.

If you can check your email, and know how to browse the web, you have
almost all the knowledge you need to know to start an email group.

Yahoo Groups (used to be E-Groups years ago before Yahoo sucked them
up.... yes I've done the email list thing for a LONG time) is very easy
to use and it doesn't cost you a dime.  Google in response has started
up a similar tool, although frankly I don't like their interface as
much.

I actually am in charge of running about a half of a dozen email lists
myself, and except for the fact that one of them is part of my job so I
have to spend a lot of time responding to the posts, etc..   it takes me
very little time to maintain them all.  Probably an hour or two per
week.

Yes, it will take a long time and some hard work to make it any where
near as successful as NEOPAL is.  But I'm sure Fred started his list
with probably a few dozen members and now it is thousands of members.
He has done a lot of work to make it as popular as it is.

I would argue that it's also well worth the small amount of time you
will spend to create something like this.  I know this for a fact.  The
job I mentioned above that involves me paying close attention to an
email list, can be directly traced to the fact that I started the list
in the first place, for free, on my own time.  So it has lead to work!
:-)

I started a list for users of SFX software by Stage Research (a
Cleveland based company by the way), that is for audio playback and show
control for live events.  At the time I was just a strong proponent and
happy customer/user of their products.  But I now run their Beta test
team and am heavily involved in both product development and support.
(Incidentally this company has worked it's way up from creating some
tools they wanted to use on their own sound designs at Greenbriar and
Willoughby Fine Arts to become almost a De facto standard that is used
from everyone from high schools to community theatres, to Regional
Theatre companies, and yes... even MANY Broadway shows.. right here in
NEO folks!)  :-)

Just an example of how you can benefit from taking a few moments of your
time to run an email list.

If you don't believe me, then ask Fred Sternfeld, Johnny Wu, or Bill
Johns.  I'm sure they would agree that it has been well worth their
time.

Some links to look at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/

http://groups.google.com/


Just an idea...

Richard B. Ingraham
RBI Computers and Audio
http://www.rbicompaudio.20m.com/
rbI at rbicompaudio.20m.com

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