urp

WEBMASTER 'HOPEFUL'

After a tumultuous launch which was "like a rollercoaster from heaven
to hell and back, finally stopping in Reading, emotionally,"
Freewheeling CEO Sam Walker greeted day two calmly "hopeful, yet
essentially pessimistic" that his new forum would live to see a
brighter future.

"Registrations are up; we managed to snare some big game fairly early
on," said the careworn executive, almost lost among the detritus of
the grand opening party held at the Freewheeling offices in East
Sussex yesterday.

"We had to make cleaning lady redundant sometime after midnight," he
sheepishly explained. Although a flurry of evening activity on the
boards rallied support among twitchy investors, "They strongly hinted
that the extravagances would have to go. I may even have to sell the
Bike Friday."

Helmets saved the day
The highest traffic was enjoyed by the fledgling Helmets child board,
found under the wing of Cycling 101. "I got the idea for a dedicated
helmets board from my 2-year-old daughter," maintained Walker, not
actually a parent except for the purposes of this article. "One day
she looked up at me with those big brown eyes and said 'Da-da, hemm sh
lrrrrp aaaaaaah frenzle if you build it they will come urp gllxxxxx
fra'. It was surely a sign."

Asked what she thought of her da-da's new enterprise, the tot
commented "I don't know how far he's going to get pedalling his forum
on Usenet. There are some brilliant people I know he's quite keen to
have register in addition to those who've already done so, but whether
they'll wish to take part in this type of format is anyone's guess.
Urp."

His daughter's precosious critique prompted Walker to comment:
"Indeed. Anybody's guess. Coochy-coo. The nice thing about 'this
format' is its potential not just as a cohesive community, but as an
easily-searchable database of information and opinion. Sure, you can
pick through Usenet via google groups, but it's not the same."

He's also tiredly keen to point out to potential recruits that
Freewheeling offers many other boards in addition to helmets. "I think
you'll find most tastes catered for," he promised. "And I'm open to
suggestion. '[Rant]....[/Rant]' is a direct result of member
influence; in fact I'm considering posting there myself. 'Fixed' was
another suggestion I adopted, though the last time I tried to ride one
of those I almost ended up in hospital."

http://www.freewheelingforum.com/index.php

in message , Sam
') wrote:

Asked what she thought of her da-da's new enterprise, the tot
commented "I don't know how far he's going to get pedalling his forum
on Usenet. There are some brilliant people I know he's quite keen to
have register in addition to those who've already done so, but whether
they'll wish to take part in this type of format is anyone's guess.
Urp."

No, ta.

His daughter's precosious critique prompted Walker to comment:
"Indeed. Anybody's guess. Coochy-coo. The nice thing about 'this
format' is its potential not just as a cohesive community, but as an
easily-searchable database of information and opinion.

The nasty thing about 'this format' is it splits the cohesive community
into lots of little fragments, and that instead of having one humungous
easily searchable database you have hundreds of fiddly little ones 95%
of which contain no useful information whatever, and all of which have
their own different proprietary search interfaces so you can't even
produce a useful metasearcher.

'Web forums' have always been pointless. It isn't practically possible
to produce an effective interface to a discussion on the web, and such
things are islands of discussion off the shores of the great continent
of Usenet.

In summary, if you must try to reinvent the wheel, square is not the
best possible shape. And bearings are quite useful, too.

--
(Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

Morning had broken, and there was nothing we could do but wait
patiently for the RAC to arrive.