Dear Congress: Grow a pair!

Dear Congress: Grow a pair!

I apologize if that seems a bit crude, but as a whole you are all too dense to have noticed the more subtle signals that the American public, your employers, have been sending. So now we must resort to heavier tactics, and stronger words.

As your employers, I would guess that most of us would say that your job performance is well below expectations. You do not function well in a team environment, and not a one of you is able to check your ego at the door. This has resulted in stagnation of the system while the rest of the world is leaving us in the dust. Even worse, your inability to play nice has caused a crisis of historic proportions.

Now back to that rather harsh intro. And ya, grow a pair about describes it. The Cowardly Lion had more guts than the whole lot of you combined. He was willing to work in a team environment, even when it scared him. You all cannot even do that much, you are so scared of losing your jobs and your funding that you consider inaction the best course of action, and you are putting not only your own jobs on the line by doing so, but you are pulling the entire Unites States down with you.

Republicans and Fiscal Conservatives, you need to work on your "no" skills, and I don't means saying no to Democrats and Liberals. You need to work on saying no to companies that export jobs rather than support the US economy. Why do they deserve tax breaks when they don't employ US workers who would then make up that break through payroll taxes? You claim to be fiscally conservative, but in effect your policies give money away to other countries. Talk about spending more than you are bringing in.

Democrats and Liberals, you also need to work on your "no" skills, and once again the people you are saying "no" to aren't your Republican and Fiscal Conservative counterparts. You need to say no waste. There are problems in every system, and every entitlement program will have those who will abuse it. But just because it is there does not mean everybody needs it, and due to abuses some who do need it are rejected from lack of funds. You need to say no to abuses and make sure that the people who do need these systems are able to get the help they need when they need it. Wasteful spending is negligent spending.

Both sides need to work on their "yes" skills, particularly where the other party is concerned. While you may have fundamental ideological differences, there are people all the time with ideological differences that are able to overcome them through compromise. Kindergarteners are able to come to a compromise easier than you.

In summary everybody needs to address their fears and learn to face them. Every member of Congress has a fear of losing their job as well as losing the "funding" that your employers know you are taking on the side. Every member of Congress has the fear that even the slightest hint of compromise will make them look weak, weak to their own party and exploitable by the other.

Consider this your unofficial mid-term performance review. Your employers are watching, and the performance review that counts is next year. Your cowardice in terms of stepping up and showing the guts to be a team player may very well cause you to fail the review that counts. If that happens, there is nobody to blame except yourself.

So for your own good, grow a pair.

~Your employers, The American Public

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XstreetSl Changes, my take

So if you are a second life resident and haven't heard about the changes to the way that xstreetsl will handle not only freebies, but all products from here out... now is a good time to educate yourself.

Xstreet Changes Blog Link

Now before continuing on, if you have not read the above link, then open it and do so. Information is spreading in world, but not all of it is completely accurate from what I have seen. I feel it's much better for everybody to know for themselves what is being done.

Now to the reaction. I had an almost immediate kneejerk reaction to the proposed changes, like many others I'm sure. But honestly the only proposed measure that got me was the listing fee per month per item that was not a freebie.

Let's face it, running a website with as large a database as xstreet is not cheap. With only a 5% commission and a good portion of the catalogue being cheap enough to not bring in anything at all, it was only a matter of time before the admins were going to have to step in and regulate the use of freebies and cheapies.

With that in mind, I can see some of the reasoning for the measures of charging a monthly listing for the freebies as well as making a minimum commission. Though I honestly think that the price level listing for the freebies is a tad high.

It is the matter of the listing fees for all items prices L$1 or more that I have serious issues with, and where I think that linden lab is mistaken. There are much more elegant ways to deal with 'stale' items than what is proposed.

Probably the simplest is time based removal from the marketplace. A product that does not sell a single copy in a matter of x-months is automatically deactivated. The creator is informed, and is then given the option of paying that same fee in order to keep a product in the market, or removing it altogether. If the item sells again then the listing fee is removed again and the timer reset. This handles better the idea of seasonal products, as the creators would only be paying for a few months before the item is in search again rather than year round on an item that only sells a few months of the year.

Trial periods. It's hard to say which new product will be a hit or a dud, and how many creators can justify a listing fee on something new when there is the cloud of speculation? I can see the listing fee actually creating the problem that it is trying to solve as older proven product is left up and new items not taken the risk on. There instead needs to be a set period of months where a new product can be uploaded and not incur fees. This gives the marketplace a chance to flourish with new listings, while weeding out non-movers in a timely fashion.

Increased commissions. Now I am NOT advocating increased commissions in addition to the listing fee. But in leiu of the listing fee I would instead like to see the commission prices increase slightly. It is better justified IMO than charging up front for a service that has been substandard in terms of searching for product and minimal product value.

I would also like to see listing free freebies as a benefit to merchants. A percentage of product catalogue perhaps. Freebies do have amazing use, a way for merchants to share samples of their product with minimal risk to the customers, or in some cases are a necessity. Hair, shoes, skins and shapes are things that demo's are absolutely essential for. Yet without a demo catagory, those merchants will for forced to pay for those essential items. A percentage of freebie items in a merchant catalogue allows for demos to be boxed and handed out. It might not be perfect, requiring merchants to box several demos into a single box, but even that could have the benefit of not seeing a slew of demo sales over and over to the same buyer as they try different styles.

Overall, the goal of reducing clutter and keeping costs reasonable is a good one, but the method proposed is flawed and will only lead to stagnation in an increasingly tiny marketplace.

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Pho's to do list

1.Dust out cafepress store, upload new merchandise

2. cross post what is possible to imagekind

3. revamp web domains. http://Dreamsindigitalart.com needs a makeover, http://santafewrimos.org needs a bit of cleaning out before november, http://bumperstickerrant.com may need scrapped, http://phoenixwaller.com just needs a major overhaul

4. Get as much product made for sl as possible before 31 Oct. Make sure xmas stuff is ready before then. Not making ANYTHING for sl during nanowrimo (I hope I can keep this vow)

5. Decide the best way to web promote my sl stores.

6. try to get some new poser products together, and into the renderosity marketplace. Lots of new stuff and lots of stuff purchased with particular texture ideas in mind, then SL swallowed my life.

more to be added as necessary. too many things to do and not enough time

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:-?

bit dusty in here

/me takes out a duster and looks around

eep

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Internet Musings

The web can be a fickle thing. One can see exactly how fickle it is with the consideration of small business websites.

Some small biz websites do extremely well for the company that they represent. They make potential consumers more aware of the products and services offered by the company. Some websites allow the small business to grow from a local player to a world player.

And then there are other small biz websites. Maybe badly executed, or perhaps not even necessary to the functioning of the business. Sometimes these websites arise not as much from the need to grow into the internet economy, as to have one as it's the IN thing to do.

I honestly think that before any small business starts a website they honestly need to consider their goals for having such a site, and if it's worth the monetary and time commitments.

Lately I've been dealing with a small biz website that I feel not only fails in the execution, but also is almost entirely unnecessary for the company that it is supposed to represent. Why was it started? I believe that the owners started the website in the misguided belief that a website will attract customers on its own.

What didn't seem to be taken into consideration was exactly HOW it was going to attract customers. The business cannot sell goods over the internet because of the nature of the products, so no e-commerce is possible, and the services offered are for a local area. Even the nature of the services are of no use to the website as a customer is probably more inclined to look for the service in the phone book rather than wade through search engine results to find a local service provider.

Despite those challenges, however, the website that I was working with could have attracted customers another way. But those other options were constrained to the point of impossibility by the hosting and outside management of the website.

For a website that exists mainly to drive traffic into a physical store, you need to give the customers something that will draw them to your website in the first place. And then you need to keep them coming back. The best, and easiest way to accomplish this is to, give them timely and relevant information. A dynamic, content driven, website will bring customers in and back again. By combining relevant articles that answer questions that a customer may be looking for answers for with web special coupons you not only provide a valuable service as far as answering questions, but you also give the customer the incentive to visit your store instead of your competitors'.

But it was the execution of the website that forced the inability to give the website the content that it required without going to an external source. Rigid constraints by the website management service allowed only limited customization options of the site, and no clear or convenient manner to add relevant content. In fact, the limitations were so severe that only certain (pre-named) pages could be added to the website. Nothing could be added that didn't fit into this rigid structure. Even the links page was populated with logos and links for vendors, and there was no way to add other links that the company deemed relevant to it. Any other links had to be located on other pages. In fact there was only one redeeming feature of the website management, but I sorely doubt that the one feature could make it worth the exorbitant price that was charged.

Had the owners charted out the goals and looked realistically at the possibilities for their website before entering into the management they could have saved themselves a lot of time and money in a website that appears to have provided no return on investment.

I am telling this not as any sort of business guru, nor someone who has worked in small business websites for years, as I am neither. I am presenting this as a cautionary tale. I am trying to prevent just one person out there from making the same mistakes.

If you're a small business owner and are looking into starting a web site ask yourself some simple questions:

• What is the purpose of my business having a website? Am I trying to sell goods through the site? Am I trying to drive traffic to my store or service location?
  
• Is my product or service one that customers would turn to the internet for answers for in the first place? If not is there another method by which a website can be useful to my business?
• What do I really require in a website? Do I just need a simple page where customers can find my address and phone number and minimal information? Do I need a content driven site? Do I need an e-store?
• Do I have the technical skills, or am I willing to pay an employee, to run a website? Or do I need a third-party service?
  

Ultimately, the decision on whether or not to have a web site is up to you. But by being realistic about it, and having clear goals for it in mind you can hopefully avoid the frustration of being saddled with a website that does nothing more than eat money and time.

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I guess I do care...

Now I wonder if I should be switching parties.

I just threw my support behind a candidate for the '08 prez race. Not much as I always feel poor, but I've never felt strongly enough before to even bother looking at campaign websites.

This time I feel different. And I decided that I wanted to actually support the candidate that I want to win. So I made a campaign contribution.

Strange coming from me, as I refused to vote for prez in the last cycle because I couldn't stand any of them.

Of course that now leads into the next question. Should I switch the party that I'm registered under? I'm currently registered republican, but the candidate I'm supporting is dem. With the race on the dem side being as tight as it is, I wonder if I should switch for primary reasons alone. It does no good for me to keep my current affiliation when I would be forced to choose from the republican candidates on primary day, when it would really be better for me to be hitting a dem button.

I guess I have time to decide on the party question. Current predictions are that candidates will have to raise between 70-100 million in the next couple of months to even be able to make hillary bat an eyelash. And since many of them won't make it I expect the field to shrink considerably before the end of the year. (All the more reason I contributed so early the money at this stage is incredibly important)

Anyway, as silly as it sounds, start looking at the candidates now. I know that we're still a year from the primaries, but many good candidates will be forced to drop out if they can't raise funds. The people need to put up a candidate that can do some good for the country, and some of the current front runners aren't it (IMHO), even if you've never cared about politics before now's a good time to start.

/end political message

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Bye Bye Rummy

Donald Rumsfeld finally announced that he's going to step down. And what better way to celebrate than with a Bye-Bye Crummy Rummy shirt?

Get yours here


Crummy Rummy Value T-shirt

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Er?

Religious extremists make no sense. Period.

The statement above is very broad, and with good reason. Extremism is exremism, no matter which book you read. So I'm equally annoyed with the christian fundamentalists as I am with the islamic extremists, and while I don't hear much of other extremist religious sects I'll make an assumption that they'd annoy me too.

Today's random rant brought to you by some choice quotes from a news article following the anger inspiring words from the Pope.

If you want to read the full article here it is.

My favorite bits:

"On Sunday, Benedict said he was "deeply sorry" over any hurt caused by his comments made in a speech last week, in which he quoted a medieval text characterizing some of the Prophet Muhammad's teachings as "evil and inhuman" and calling Islam a religion spread by the sword."

Ok. So the moderates said that it wasn't enough, but also advocated peaceful demonstrations as protest.

The extremists just decided to prove that the spread by the sword part was true with...

"Al-Qaida in Iraq and its allies issued a statement addressing the pope as "a cross-worshipper" and warning, "You and the West are doomed, as you can see from the defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and elsewhere.

"You infidels and despots, we will continue our jihad (holy war) and never stop until God avails us to chop your necks and raise the fluttering banner of monotheism, when God's rule is established governing all people and nations," said the statement by the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of Sunni Arab extremist groups in Iraq."

and...

"Another Iraqi extremist group, Ansar al-Sunna, challenged "sleeping Muslims" to prove their manhood by doing something other than "issuing statements or holding demonstrations."

"If the stupid pig is prancing with his blasphemies in his house," the group said in a Web statement, referring to the pope, "then let him wait for the day coming soon when the armies of the religion of right knock on the walls of Rome.""

Hmm, I see. So to prove that your religion doesn't do what was said, you're going to do exactly what was said. I fail to see how words such as these can help to prove that the religion was cast in a bad light.

I'll admit upon reading the full text of the speech, that the words can easily be taken out of context. But I still see no reason to lend truth to the words so hated by acting in exact accordance to the offending part.

I guess I'll never understand.

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