Continuation from. See Message ID:
1593790 for the original post.
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>Aside from all that, I put a fair chunk of unbillable time into running this group.
Money concerns trumping technically feasible aspects related to genuine human interest, and even upon direct inquiry. That is frightening.
>And finally, as some others have said, if video is freely available, the incentive to
>actually come to the meeting is lowered.
You're looking to personal things, Tamar. Niche audiences, rather than wide audiences. You want to grow self (and selfish interests, those of your group) more than you want to grow the many who could benefit from the knowledge and experience present in your group.
This is the same issue I had with you-and-the-other hoarders at the Southwest Fox event. Only those who paid thousands of dollars got to gain anything, or take any advantage away from it. You even told us you needed a certain number of people to sign up to break even, and you had well over that amount in the end ... so again you're doing it for money reasons ahead of educational ones.
What does a PhD make these days? Surely it's enough to earn a living when you're married and your spouse works too? Why are you concerned about the money aspects of it? I do not have a college degree, and yet I make enough to provide for my family without my wife having to work (full-time stay at home mom, and also a student at present).
I propose to you that were we to liken the knowledge gained at Southwest Fox to equivalent building heights in a type of flat city landscape, that what you all created there was a small area of 10-20 story buildings. Lots of knowledge for the few. Yet had you made videos, and made them available by recording each session, and put those videos out there free of charge, then it would've been far reaching, a wide, sweeping multi-square-mile landscape full of 1-5 story buildings galore, and getting bigger all the time because that knowledge you deposited out there keeps on giving continually, keeps on growing, as if it were alive (which it is because it comes from giving), and in that multi-square-mile landscape there would be several areas at or beyond the 10-20 story building range (because the people there would've been able to see ALL the shows, and repeatedly, so as to gain subtlety and nuance -- even those they couldn't attend at the time due to some other reason).
You have incorrect goals, Tamar. Your reasons are money-based, personal empire based, building monopolistic fortresses around your niches based. The VFP community is not that way. We are a distributed, wide lot. Consider who your true, widest audience is, Tamar, and serve them, even at personal expense, even at the expense of the few. If it's important enough to you to have face-to-face meetings, then do those as well, in addition to the public offerings. It's not just those people in your geographic location who can benefit from what you have to offer. That's thinking too small. And with regards to money interests, it's empire building, it's hoarding, it's more for me and less for you.
We, the VFP community, are comprised of an online group of living, breathing souls, and are not mere physical neighbors of happenstance.
>There is value in face to face meetings beyond the technical content. I'm not willing to sacrifice that value.
The video offering would not sacrifice the face-to-face experience, would it? If there is sufficient value in being there face-to-face, people will still come. The video would just allow the many of us (out here in other parts of the world who cannot attend) the opportunity to see and learn and grow and also share in that which you all have to offer. The seeds you plant don't go out to the 10 or 12 who show up, but rather to hundreds, thousands even over time. We become part of you, and you of us, as we would undoubtedly contact you for praise and assistance, presenting also your offerings to others, beyond our mere watching, sharing them with co-workers, or citing them in articles where others will at some point read and watch.
Don't limit yourself to your personal empire goals of face-to-face-only contacts ... look to who can benefit, and reach out to them with what's available.
>If you'd like to have a group to go to, do the work.
I have those purposes, but mine are to build online community groups. At present, I am devoting my time to completing Visual FreePro. Once that project is completed, and perhaps periodically even before that time, I most assuredly will have online video sessions (James 4:15).
Tamar, the world is not the world you think it is. When decisions to hoard are employed, needs go unmet, and those decisions cause unnecessary harm to thousands of developers, and to countless users (those who would've had better products because of the knowledge they would've had were it otherwise). God gifts certain people with special talents, education, and opportunities. He expects them to use those gifts to serve others, not just themselves. Limiting what's possible due to selfish, empire-building concerns, all such behavior is charged to someone's account. It is not being written off. It is all loss. And those who are involved in self-seeking endeavors, rather than outreach endeavors, rather than giving endeavors, have every last ounce of apparent gain as real loss. It eats away at the soul like cancer, or a cankerous boil.
It doesn't have to be like that. Our decisions demonstrate the attitude of our heart. Giving as much as is possible of ourselves is what God expects. We are a community of His creation, made for His purposes. It is simply that way.
