To those that may have opened this email, mistakenly thinking that the
subject "Parallel Universe" had something to do with planetary gears in a
transmission - my apologies. I had a suggestion to clarify the posts but
there's no acceptance of it. Back to the tech after this....
Don,
while there may be a finite supply of real estate & fossel fuel, 'cause they
aint making any more of it, but a finite number of Morgans & buffs?!! Au
contraire, mes ami! Assuming that the factory still exists in a decade, with
the increase in production, lets say 500 Mogs per year - in ten years there
will be potentially 5,000 more Morgans! How many new Triumphs are being
made?
Now, after 90 years at say 400 Mogs per year (give or take) that means there
are some 36,000 Mogs made. Many are still out there. Albeit some have been
in pieces for years. Everyone is rebuildable. Start adding up the number of
current members in every organized Mog club in the world. Add in those that
are disgruntled & don't belong to a club. Add the number of former owners
that are curious about the current Mog scene & all the curious Morgan
"wanna-bes". The number would be many, many thousands. It's not that finite.
The Morgan universe is ex-pand-ing! When it contracts into a black hole,
we'll know.
Richard,
I too enjoy the list. So much so that I have had a link to it & instructions
for joining it at my MSCCC site's Tech Pages since the Spring. In fact, the
pages are taken from postings on this list! How to join the list has been
mentioned in our club's newsletter & I've mentioned the list to other
enthusiasts. If the "traffic volume here is moderate", could it be that not
everyone here promotes the list? How many other web sites mentions it?
Do the increasing number of web sites pose a threat to it, or just the MSCI
community?
I hope we're not confusing "supplementing" the list with "supplanting" it!
When you speak of a fear of dilution, I hope it's not really "exclusion"
that you're meaning. A couple of years ago, a person with responsibility at
an MG club gave me a lesson about dilution. It went like this: "we can't
promote your event open to all because we have an MG only event the next
week (at a Morgan member's place) & we'll get less people out to it. You're
kind invitation is diluting our attendance". This fellow was serious. (Let
no good deed go unpunished). They were also serious about us running their
Autojumble flyer each year, in our newsletter, because they needed the other
clubs to attend, to make money, so they could keep up their glossy
newsletter. Well, it took a few years & a wholesale change in their
Executive & now they know that "dilution" isn't such a bad thing. Having an
open shop is better than a closed one made up of "just our own". They now
not only support other's events, list them, do joint endeavours, they also
convoy their members to other's events.
So we've got a good thing going here with the email list. We don't need
anything else or a lot of new members cluttering up the inbox. But we don't
want to lose any of our assets either. It's just perfect the way it is! When
someone posts an event on this list, it can last as long as the time it
takes a list member's finger to hit the delete key! When someone posts an
event at MSCI, it stays there so that someone who's interested can see it.
Member or not.
Yet some have expressed a desire for something larger. It's curious that the
British Cars list at team.net
(known as the big one) has had its traffic taper to a trickle over the last
year or so. I've noticed this & wondered why. On some days there are no
messages at all. The Morgan list now surpasses it regularly! Are there less
British car clubs? Less people on the internet?
There's no monster British club out there usurping all the members. There's
no British Cars Excite Community that's doing it either. Could it be that
many don't really want something bigger? That much of the Healey banter
doesn't interest the Triumph folk, or the Morganeers? Isn't it more likely
that people are sticking to their own kin, clan & tribes? Birds of a
feather.... I haven't checked the traffic on say the MG list lately, but I
bet it is massive!
If you're content with telegrams, by all means use them. I still have some
rotary dial phones in the house (that kids can't figure out how they work).
But please don't be afraid of new ideas or technology. While it may be an
impossible task to amalgamate all the Mog groups on the continent, let alone
the world, it can be very easy today to start something with a large mandate
from scratch - free of all the inherent policy, rules, culture, traditions,
rituals & politics - of the existing groups.
Ideally, some IT professional will come up with some programming sometime
that will allow more new features. Forinstance, information about one's car
when they join could be automatically forwarded to Tony McLaughlin's
database. Could be possible. Fred Sisson's book is out of print & people
would like copies. Fred has suggested that people photocopy it. Well,
someone with a copy & a scanner could scan it once & post the files -
complete with the diagrams - for all to enjoy! Better yet (for Fred)
tjhere's an ecommerce site that posts intellectual properties. Fred's book
would never run out of print, people could bill the download to their credit
card & Fred gets payment (contact me for details Mr Sisson, if inclined). Oh
all of this stuff is just sooo scary & un-beneficial!
The best part is that such a community site is not dependant on any one
person. No one has to learn CGI, java, Flash animation & all that stuff.
Death & taxes are a certainty. A Web Meister can die, you know. It's my
experience that people do not take over an existing site or collaborate on
one. They instead come up with their own site. Well this one can go on, on
it's own. Updates can be a challege at a regular site, as well as
getting the word out about your site, and making your site of interest to
others. In the past I've culled through other sites, other newsletters to
find bits of interest. Whether it was displaying for the first time on a web
site (or a Morgan site) the Morgan art of a talented Belgian, the Morgan
Driver song from the German club, the oil paintings of an American, Raymond
the cat cartoons, or photos of the Big
Blue factory racer. Well with several sites, I plan to do less. But at the
MSCI anyone can post it themselves.
No one has to foresake their own club, or an email list, for the sake of a
larger
entity. It can be done without dues, expensive newsletters, rules, structure
or politics. And the example was done in a couple of days, without debate.
We now return to regualrly scheduled program: "My Widget Won't Work - Help".
Cheers,
Fred Kuzyk
Roundel Records MP3 music site:
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Bistro/9044/index.html
Morgan Sports Cars International
http://mycomm.excite.com/mycomm/browse.asp?cid=.4g3TS2kkNzU
Where the membership is free and anyone in the world can post photos, links,
event dates, articles, discussion, files,
& meet for real-time chat on Morgans!
My Morgan Sports Car Club of Canada site:
http://members.xoom.com/msccc/
Cigar Lounge International
http://mycomm.excite.com/mycomm/browse.asp?cid=.lKz8u_R1qmS
Where the membership is free and anyone in the world can post photos, links,
event dates, articles, discussion, files,
& meet for real-time chat on cigars!
Holy Smokes & Southern Ontario Cigar Society site:
http://members.xoom.com/holysmokes/
----- Original Message -----
From: <DGreimel@aol.com>
To: <RCooperman@aol.com>; <morgans@autox.team.net>
Sent: Monday, August 23, 1999 5:57 AM
Subject: Re: Parallel Universe
> Given the very finite number of Morgan buffs I can only agree with you.
> Don Greimel
> 66 4/4 comp
>
----- Original Message -----
From: <RCooperman@aol.com>
To: <morgans@autox.team.net>; <fkuzyk@cgocable.net>
Sent: Monday, August 23, 1999 12:32 AM
Subject: Parallel Universe
> Fred,
>
> I have been quite pleased with the free ebb and flow of chat, technical
> information and humor I get as e-mail on the net via
> <morgans@autox.team.net>. The mail exchange comes directly to me with
little
> effort on my part and there is little structure or formality in the group.
> The traffic volume is moderate, the technical data to the point and an
> occasional bit of whimsy pops in to lighten us up. We have grown into a
very
> friendly and supportive band. I really enjoy the technical data flow and
the
> banter. This format seems to work well and it's global reach adds
character.
> In brief I am a very happy camper with the current state of communication
> provided via <morgans@autox.team.net>.
>
> I have been passively following the thread of late as to a "super North
> American" club to be formed based on the inter-net. This evening I
visited
> your web page at
> <http://mycomm.excite.com/mycomm/browse.asp?cid=.4g3TS2kkNzU> just to see
> what was there. I was troubled by what I saw. It appears you are
developing
> a parallel universe where MOG traffic that would normally appear here is
> being siphoned off and posted to your web site. IMHO this can only dilute
> what we have here.
>
> Am I alone in my thinking??
>
> Richard Cooperman
> '69 4/4
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