Date: Thu, 13 Jul 95 09:25:47 CDT
From: Patrick Douglas Crispen
To: tourbus@colossus.net
Subject: WELCOME TO TOURBUS
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\___/ \___/ "Why Surf When U Can Ride The Bus?" \___/
TOURBUS TRAFFIC REPORT
JULY 13, 1995
This traffic report is just a quick way for Bob and me to
check if your e-mail box is still working (and it is). If
you are reading this letter right now, you are subscribed
to TOURBUS and will begin to receive e-mail letters from Bob
and me on July 20.
--------------------------------------------------------------
UHH ... *JULY* 20? THE NEW-LIST ANNOUNCEMENT SAID THAT TOURBUS
WOULD START ON *JUNE* 20!
--------------------------------------------------------------
Whoops :)
The date listed in the recent NEW-LIST announcement for TOURBUS
contained one small, squirrel-induced error: the start date for
TOURBUS will be *JULY* 20, not June 20.
---------------------------------------
SO HOW WILL THIS TOURBUS "THINGY" WORK?
---------------------------------------
("Thingy" is a technical term meaning "doohickey")
Starting on July 20, you will receive two e-mail letters a week
(one from Bob and one from me). Each letter will introduce you to a
"neat" Internet site or tool, and will also teach you some inside
tricks to help you use this site or tool to its fullest potential.
---------------------------------------
HOW MUCH DOES THIS TOURBUS THINGY COST?
---------------------------------------
Nothing. Zero. Zilch. Zip. Nada. :)
--------------------------------------------
COME ON ... THIS HAS GOT TO COST *SOMETHING*
--------------------------------------------
Okay, you caught me ... what I meant to say was that TOURBUS
won't cost *YOU* anything.
TOURBUS will, in fact, cost a several thousand dollars a
a year to run (this is due to list and system rental fees),
but Bob and I are paying for TOURBUS out of our own pockets.
Bob and I are doing this because we are both incredibly nice
people who have absolutely no sort of social lives that we can
waste our money on.
--------------------------------------------------------------
HAVE YOU AND BOB THOUGHT ABOUT CHARGING THE USERS FOR TOURBUS?
--------------------------------------------------------------
Pardon my language, but HECK NO!
Bob and I feel that charging users for things like TOURBUS
so violates the basic fabric of the net that we would rather
eat worms than ask you to pay for this.
-----------
WORMS, HUH?
-----------
Pretty gross, isn't it?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
HAVE YOU AND BOB GIVEN ANY THOUGHT TO FINDING A CORPORATE SPONSOR
FOR TOURBUS?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
In a word, YEP!
If Bob and I do find a sponsor (which is a pretty big if),
besides falling to our knees and worshiping the sponsor, Bob
and I will also give the sponsor the opportunity to say a
few words at the beginning or end of our posts to TOURBUS.
After all, that's the least that Bob and I can do (and Bob
and I constantly strive to do the absolute least that we
can do).
------------------------------------------------------------
OH, GREAT ... SO E-MAIL BOX IS GOING TO BE FLOODED WITH ADS?
------------------------------------------------------------
Don't be silly.
If Bob and I find a sponsor, we'll thank that sponsor for their
support by letting that sponsor say a little something in our
regular TOURBUS posts. No matter what happens, you'll still only
get two letters a week from TOURBUS :)
-------------------------------------------------
WILL YOU AND BOB MAKE ANY MONEY OFF OF THESE ADS?
-------------------------------------------------
Gee, I hope so. I'm planning to use my share to help pay the
costs of renting a list for my upcoming Web workshop (which
I hope to start in October) ... and Bob desperately needs
money to support his Snickers candy bar addiction.
-------------------------------------------------------------
I HAVE SOME FRIENDS WHO WANT TO SIGN UP TO TOURBUS AFTER JULY
20 ... WILL THEY BE ABLE TO SUBSCRIBE LATE?
-------------------------------------------------------------
Sure!
TOURBUS is less like a course (like Roadmap) and more like
a free newsletter (like Edupage). Your friends can subscribe
anytime they want.
If your friends (or, for that matter, your enemies) want to
subscribe to TOURBUS, tell them to send an e-mail letter to
LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
which says
SUBSCRIBE TOURBUS
in the body of their e-mail letter.
-------------------------------------------------
WILL THE OLD TOURBUS POSTS BE ARCHIVED SOMEWHERE?
-------------------------------------------------
Yep ... I'm just not quite sure WHERE :)
Let me check on this and get back to you.
-----------------------------------------------------------
CAN I ARCHIVE OR REDISTRIBUTE THE TOURBUS POSTS AT MY SITE?
-----------------------------------------------------------
Absolutely ... you just need to make sure that you keep an
accurate account of the number of people that you redistribute
TOURBUS' posts to (the sponsors need this information for some
reason or another).
---------------------------------------
HAS ALABAMA BEEN "SQUIRRELED" RECENTLY?
---------------------------------------
(If you participated in Roadmap, you will remember that the
University of Alabama has had a really terrible time with
squirrels chomping through the power lines running into the
University's mainframe computer center)
Unfortunately, Bama hasn't been squirreled in over a year :(
... but I did see a bird chase a squirrel down a tree and across
the quad (picture a cute squirrel running for his life with a
Hitchcock-esqe bird chasing him, pecking at the squirrel's tail).
--------------------------------------------------
FINALLY, WHAT IS TODAY'S SOUTHERN WORD OF THE DAY?
--------------------------------------------------
BARD - verb. Past tense of the infinitive "to borrow."
Usage: "My brother bard my pick-up truck." :)
(\__/) .~ ~. ))
/O O ./ .' PATRICK DOUGLAS CRISPEN
{O__, \ { PCRISPE1@UA1VM.UA.EDU
/ . . ) \ THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA
|-| '-' \ } )) HTTP://UA1VM.UA.EDU/~CRISPEN/CRISPEN.HTML
.( _( )_.'
'---.~_ _ _& Warning: squirrels.
======================================================================
SUBSCRIBE : Send SUBSCRIBE TOURBUS to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
unSUBSCRIBE: Send UNSUBSCRIBE TOURBUS to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
Web Site : http://csbh.mhv.net/~bobrankin/tourbus
(stop in for back issues and the logo contest)
Advertising: E-mail BobRankin@MHV.net w/ Subject: SEND TBRATES
======================================================================
TOURBUS - (c) Copyright 1995, Patrick Crispen and Bob Rankin
All rights reserved. Redistribution is allowed only with permission.
