Re: free .mac account
Re: free .mac account
- Subject: Re: free .mac account
- From: Gary Lists <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 01:26:50 -0400
On or about 7/24/03 12:08 AM, Barbara Passman wrote:
>
So tread lightly and don't steam up until you have the facts, Ma'am.
>
>
Barbara Passman
and also,
>
12:03 PM -0400 7/23/03, Sarah Friedlander wrote:
>
> This entire topic on the free .mac account really has me a bit peeved.
Much of this discussion seems like nit-picking on so many levels.
I do not mean to be a provocateur, nor do I mean to offend. I honestly
believe what you are about to read, and I can take rational disagreement.
All that to mean: Don't flame me. :-)
With free email and web space a very common fact of life for anyone who
wants to have it (okay, ads are a problem) it also suggests a general "human
truism": If someone gets something free, then everyone who didn't
complains.
It is not honorable to be issued an email/web account that is intended for
"group use" and then to not inform the group. I agree.
It is not honorable to be given access to some resources that are meant for
"group use" and then hoard them without telling anyone. I agree.
It is also not honorable to expect "group leaders" to continually be there,
deal with issues, keep the ball rolling, be a motivator, do work late at
night after work and family time, be early to meetings, clean up after
everyone leaves, be the "legal target" when things go wrong and all the rest
of it and then to complain too bitterly when a small perquisite comes along.
What leader of any group (Boy Scouts, T-ball, Soccer Mom Car Pool, etc.)
does not, in some small way, by virtue of just being there first and being
there last, end up with a few extra cookies after the bake sale? With the
odd T-shirt that the vendor tossed her way when the lights were being turned
out and the chairs all stacked?
Time invested to lead a group is so seldom repaid by anything -- seldom even
a "Thanks, Mary!" -- yet when there is even _the hint_ that "someone is
getting something that I am not" then it's time to scream, to make speeches,
to demand justice!
Okay, so it's not all that dramatic.
People who lead groups should inform the group of the benefits that are
issued to the group, as said. And a really great group would say, "Thanks
for telling us. That's cool. We'd like you to use it to manage our group.
Thanks for your hard work, by the way. I wish we could do more, but..."
People who participate in groups should realize that, yes, it's true,
sometimes the responsibility, toil, tireless drain, lending an ear for
complainers and all the rest sometimes -- far too infrequently, in my
opinion -- yield some small, tiny, kibbles that fall from the table.
Perhaps people are so ready to sneak a few boxes of paperclips home from
work, or use a group account for group management tasks (and not share
it...which would make even more work) precisely because they get so little
thanks from those who do nothing but come to complain.
I've hardly met a UG leader who doesn't, on some level, partly do what they
do because there are excellent deals, freebies and gadgets to be had for
doing it. Everyone wins: you get to learn, to meet friends, to maybe find
a life-partner, to be there for the door prize, to see technology before
everyone else on your block, and someone else does all the work. And the
folks who do all the work sometimes, yes, deserve a 99 cents per month email
account that you don't deserve, didn't earn and don't even need.
Don't steal from your group if you're a leader.
Don't make your leader not care because you never thank her.
Don't complain just because you, too, want the free account.
--
Gary
(Who has neither a free .Mac account nor a paid one.)
(And who would not want a free or paid one...the service is not stable, IMO,
and most of my friends who did have one -- like me -- have canceled their
subscriptions, or never renewed when the "bait and switch" pulled by Apple
occurred.)
(But who does have some cool free shirts...for being there late and cleaning
up and carrying boxes and picking up the litter left behind...and I do not
share them with anyone. :)
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