🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Aug4.071559.946@beckman.com>, dsroberts@beckman.com writes:
>Terry, FYI, DECUServe reports to the Management Council.  And the fee is now
>$75, up from the former $60.

Thanks.

>We just need
>some convincing arguments as to how we are going to keep from adversely
>affecting revenues.  I haven't seen anyone touch on this.  With the newsletter
>being shut down because it's losing so much money, all the units having to cut
>back and DECUServe one of the few units showing an increase in revenue (even 
>symposia are down), unless revenue is dealt with it will be a hard sell.

I think Vern Cole had the perfect solution (better than mine that you quoted).
What it comes down to is what you think your subscribers want. Would DECUServe
users be content to have free readonly access, or will they pay $75 to be able
to post? If the latter, then Vern's solution will do the job. If the former,
then no gateway will be acceptable, because any gateway will allow
non-subscribers to read the traffic (unless you do it like clarinet, which is an
option). 

Heck, I'm a non-subscriber, and I'll pay $75 to be able to post, if I can read
and post from my machine. Here's my elaboration of Vern's proposal:

On the DECUServe machine, you have a gateway from VAXnotes to appropriate
newsgroups, which are fed out to the net. The newsgroup is setup as moderated,
with the moderator being an account on the DECUServe machine. That account's
mail is read by the gateway software, not a human. For each news article, the
gateway software checks the From: line against a list of registered subscribers.
If the From: line matches the list, mark the article approved and post it to
both the newsgroup and the VAXnotes conference. If not, bounce it back to the
sender with a standard informational message saying only subscribers can post,
and tell them how to subscribe (you might get additional subscribers that way).
Articles from VAXnotes are, of course, automatically approved.

Each subscriber would register the From: line as it would be generated by his
software. You can give them, say, up to 3 for people that use multiple machines
(or charge for more "listings" and pick up a little extra cash). (That list
could be part of a nifty email directory you could offer as a service to
subscribers, btw.) You should only check the actual address, not the whole text
of the From: line, some people play around with their personal names a lot. The
parsing involved isn't that much.

You can also offer dialup uucp newsfeeds of this stuff for a fee, generating a
little extra revenue. To keep your bandwidth down, you'll want to offer feeds
ONLY for the DECUServe stuff.

So, if people will pay to post, this will generate additional revenue. If not,
then no gateway will work except one similar to clarinet, where you feed it
directly to subscriber sites, who sign a contract not to feed it to anyone else
without your approval. Charge a per-site fee. To cut your bandwidth, offer a
discount for each approved subscriber site they feed the traffic to. I am NOT
advocating this, I think people will pay the fee to be able to use the service
fully.

The biggest problem you'll have with either proposal is the non-commercial
restrictions on government funded portions of the internet. Since this is a
money making enterprise, it is definitely commercial traffic. It can be carried
by commercial TCP/IP providers, and between them via CIX and similar
arangements, and of course uucp sites can carry whatever they want, but it can't
be carried on the NSFnet.

My personal opinion as a DECUS member is that it should NOT be a moneymaking
venture. Make subscription (i.e. registering From: lines) free to any DECUS
member, and charge for actual access to the machine. People who want to dial in
to read and post, or dial in for a uucp link, would pay. Getting it over the net
would be free, as would posting to it if you are a DECUS member. Yes, this would
probably lose revenue, but to my way of thinking, it would better serve the
DECUS community and is more in keeping with DECUS' stated goals. I know that
doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of being considered, it's just my
opinion.
--
Terry Poot <tp@mccall.com>                   The McCall Pattern Company
(uucp: ...!rutgers!depot!mccall!tp)          615 McCall Road
(800)255-2762, in KS (913)776-4041           Manhattan, KS 66502, USA