john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) (01/25/91)
Never underestimate the power of the "vox populi". After receiving
thirty thousand complaints against the database to be delivered on
CD-ROM starting in March, Dan Shimmel of Lotus announced that the
product would be scrapped.
"Much of the criticism [of the product] came from sophisticated
computer users on the nationwide Usenet computer network, who began a
grass-roots campaign against the product that spread quickly",
according to the story in the {San Jose Mercury}.
What more need be said?
John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395
john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
[Moderator's Note: Most of you know I did not have the objection to
the product expressed by many of you in this forum and elsewhere on
the net. I could have lived with it or not ... but I am *very pleased*
to see the way organizations and institutions are beginning to respect
and recognize the power of this net. I've said it before: email, in
all its variations, both as individual correspondence and as a
newsgroup is an extremely potent tool. The situation with Lotus proves
it. Do *not* hesitate to write letters to people who can make changes
in things which need changing. Do not hesitate for a minute to use
this net just like the newspapers have been used for years: as a
forum -- and a powerful one at that -- to get your message across. And
to those who say we mustn't 'annoy' certain companies, organizations
or individuals with too much mail because they might grow angry and
pull the plug on mail/news, I say let them go ahead and pull it. If
*they* can't deal with it in a responsible and forthright manner then
they have no ethical or moral right to be part of the international
email network anyway. I do not promote or advocate obscene or
harassing mail. But if you have something to say, feel perfectly free
to say it in email. Your messages can make a difference. PAT]