Re: We need ideas for a new website! What are you looking for?

[The Wizard of Oz <wizard@emeraldcity.gov>]

On Tue, 23 Mar 2004 13:47:08 -0500, info"at"macrebel.com wrote:


> 
> Hello there fellow Mac Fiends!
<snip>

	I'll be a little more polite than the others, a bit more direct, and
perhaps give you a couple of useful ideas in the process.

	First some history. We are talking about two different lines of
computers. The Apple// (the topic of this newsgroup) came out before the
Mac (the topic of your post). The Apple line was killed off in the early
90's and all effort was directed toward the Mac line. Until Apple
computers started actively trying to discourage the use and sale of the
Apple// line, it sold very well against both PCs and Macs.

	The suggestion which you will find most useful would be to follow the
same procedure you used to get here but look for "mac" instead of "apple"
On the internet the use of the word "Apple" generally refers to the
Apple// computer and not the Macintosh computer. It's a very common newbie
mistake.

	Something the Linux community has found out is it is not a good idea to
hold a negative attitude about M$. It's OK to poke fun at the company and
it's customers. Just as long as it isn't serious or malicious. To make
converts to your POV, stay positive. Say why something else is better not
why M$ is worse. As an example there is a program called Evolution. It's a
*NIX only program (meaning it may be possible to run it under Mac OS X).
For people who like using M$ Outlook, this program has a similar look and
feel. It has all the same features. An additional point is it has none of
the drawbacks in terms of virus and exploit problems found in M$ Outlook.
People who used both say Evolution actually performs far better. You see
this leaves a better impression than saying "Outlook sucks. Use
Evolution.". You want to focus on why people should use something else not
why they should leave M$.

	In terms of networking with people. Do you want to focus on only Mac
stuff? Are overlap areas like *NIX and Apple// fine as well? How broad do
you want your site to be? Is it going to be commercial or free/open
source? Do you want to advertise or rely or word of mouth? Who else is
doing something similar (http://www.callapple.org)? Do you want to pool
your efforts or work individually with others doing the same thing?

	I was talking with an employee of Apple (strangely enough at a PC user
group meeting). I was asking about older Macs and he said unofficially
Apple approves of people running NetBSD on their older Macs if they want
to be compatible with OS X. Will you deal with older Macs? If so why not
have an Apple// section...

	I could go on but I think I've annoyed enough pro-M$ users by now. ;-)

				Later
				Mike