I agree with you wholeheartedly, WordWalker. It feels to me, though, like there's a little bit of a lull right now. I believe the best course of action now is:
1) Use the lull to engage in substantive and constructive discussion of .tel
2) Don't talk about the disruption or the disruptors - some of the recent comments almost invite them to respond, and we know where that leads
3) DON'T ENGAGE THEM WHEN THEY COME BACK
Make private appeals to moderators to step in, if you like, but I really believe that if people stopped arguing with the disruptors they will go away. There's no point in engaging them. This isn't true dialog. Minds are closed on both sides. Let's talk about what matters to us.
Agreed! I know some multiplayer game creators believe in the wisdom of collective decisions and have provided players with the necessary tools to suspend or expel disruptive individuals who invade the game space. Sometimes by a simple majority or 2/3 vote. I'd like to see that instituted here.
On to the subject that forms the basis of this thread:
With the mainstream media advertising tools available today, it would not require a king's ransom to put .tel on the map. Why this doesn't happen with any of the TLD's is difficult to understand. However, Telnic has been much more interested and responsive to feedback than any other TLD sponsor, so I believe there's a good chance we may still see this happen.
Rick Schwartz talks about Madison Avenue's inability to grasp domain space. At the same time, I think the domain industry fails to understand what Madison Avenue is capable of doing if given the opportunity.
GetARoom.com is doing some serious spending to promote the launch of it's new business. Clearly, that same kind of effort could brand an entire TLD instead of just one website! Rick says that it's up to the end users to decide what TLD is in and what TLD is out, but I believe the "brute force" approach to marketing and advertising can heavily influence end user decisions.
How else could it be that I have a box of Sham-Wow(s)! in my garage cabinet?
---------- Post added 08-21-2009 at 12:15 AM ---------- Previous post was 08-20-2009 at 11:58 PM ----------
I agree with both of you, focus should be on what is, or what could/will be (within reason)
and to the select few who have stated their opinion...is it really worth it
to keep going? Seriously??
If you can't play nice, don't play - you're not being forced to this thread!
To carry my analogy forward, here's the rub:
Nor am I forced to attend Giants' ball games, but I
want to attend. Stadium management could say to me, "If you have an issue with the Oakland A's heckler sitting in the seat directly behind you, you can just listen to the game on the radio or watch it on TV. After all, nobody is forcing you to attend the games at ATT Park."
But that's
not the position that stadium management takes. Stadium management will not allow a few disruptive individuals to define the experience for Giants' fans who choose to attend the games in person.
So why should a few disruptive individuals be allowed to define the end user experience in this thread?
