[Sunhelp] A message from Amazon.com about my new Wish List

[Bill Bradford]

On Sat, Mar 18, 2000 at 10:16:51PM -0800, Erik Parker wrote:
> Bill,
> I have mixed thoughts about this. I'm guessing you don't make money off of
> sunhelp.org.. But it sounds like you might be asking for something in
> return?
> Not that I wouldn't love to get things in return for some of the sites of
> made and spun off. But I don't really expect it, or ask for it.
> Am I reading this wrong/

Totally.  I dont ask for anything in return for the SunHELP site or 
mailing lists, etc, except maybe an occasional "thank you" or "hey,
that was really useful, it helped, thanks" etc.  However, I've had
people in the past mail me and say "I found exactly what I needed in just
the right time to save this project", or where they've sent questions in
email, which I've answered, and then they've asked "how can we repay you,
we WANT to send something in return."

The "Wish List" thing is basically, "if you like SunHELP, and you would
like to give something in return, feel free to check out this list and
send me a DVD."  

Nobody is obligated to do/send/give anything.  I make no money off of 
SunHELP (although I do swap banner advertisements for hardware/software 
that I use to further enhance the site and services), and I dont ever 
intend to turn this into a "for-profit" venture.

I got the idea from Tobias Oetiker, maintainer of MRTG (a program that
graphs bandwidth/traffic usage on routers/switches, used by lots of ISPs
everywhere).  I bought him a CD off of his own wishlist tonight, because
I've gotten so much use out of MRTG over the past 2-3 years.

Take a look at http://ee-staff.ethz.ch/~oetiker/webtools/mrtg/mrtg.html,
specifically the section about 1/3rd of the way down the screen that's 
highlited in yellow.  "If you like MRTG and want to show me your appreciation, 
you are welcome to have a look at my music CD wishlist . This address 
redirects you to the shop where I am currently keeping my wishlist. Please 
put your eMail address into the the Message area, so that I can thank you 
for your present."

I was probably wrong in sending the automated Amazon.com mail to the list,
because the tone it put forth sounded all wrong (once I re-read it).  For 
that, everyone has my apologies.  

Bill

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