Another year is about to roll in. Where is GICC going from here? I do not have a clue. I am amazed that it has lasted this long with only a few main posters.

Do we want to continue this forum? Is it worth continuing? I think that there has to be some kind of response from the readers to what they think should happen. Please let us know what you think.

As for me I will probably continue to post for the near future, but I cannot speak for the other active posters.

Happy Holidays to all and especially to DEE and Lee Maloney for keeping this forum going when it needed it.

First message: 1999-12-27 Most recent posting: 2000-12-26 Number of archived messages: 14286 Note that these data do not include messages that were deleted (or marked for expiration) by the forum moderator.

Active Contributors mthom1927@aol.com (4728) Dee360Degree@aol.com (1585) Somewherepress@aol.com (1202) spider0@usa.net (821) rgibson@hotmail.com (725) leemaloney@hotmail.com (430) dogboy45@bigfoot.com (282) reaper1@mindspring.com (213) infosurf@yahoo.com (211) reaper@pacifier.com (186) jpayne@webtv.net (184) somewherepress@aol.com (151) nocents@bellsouth.net (101) wellesley@freeport.net (99) perry@ofuzzy1.com (96) billiver@aol.com (94) metis@2000now.org (73)

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), December 26, 2000

Answers

Please keep posting. Thanks for all your hard work it is MUCH appreciated!

-- Don't Stop! (This is a Great Resource@her.com), December 26, 2000.

Martin- As one of your presumably countless lurkers I appreciate the daily "feed" from GICC- your info, for instance, concerning the energy crisis, is priceless and nowhere else to be found in such concentration. It has directly led to a reevaluation of our personal energy consumption and propelled us to look for viable solutions. This would never have happened without GICC. IMHO, if the forum continues exactly the same way, covering important infrastructure info that is marginalized by the big networks, it is perfection! Thank you again for your huge efforts! Swissrose.

-- Swissrose (cellier@azstarnet.com), December 26, 2000.

As one of the folks who was here before the GICC became the GICC, I vote for it to continue. I don't post much, but I read often and very much appreciate the information I get here. I remember the phone conversations we had when the GICC began. I hoped it would continue. I don't think there is anything else like it.

My very grateful thanks go to all of you contributers! Please keep up the good work.

Sally Strackbein www.Y2KKitchen.com www.SallysKitchen.com

-- Sally Strackbein (Sally@Y2KKitchen.com), December 26, 2000.

Martin- another lurker, I'm afraid. However, I check in often, and am continually amazed at the sources you folks find which have a handle on what is REALLY going on out there- compared to say, ABz's news. The efforts here are much appreciated.

-- Linda Graves (gravesfarm@madbbs.com), December 26, 2000.

Thank you, Martin, for your tireless efforts. They are truly appreciated. Keep up the excellent work. Happy anniversary.

Drew

-- Drew Kolosky (Kolosky@Prodigy.net), December 26, 2000.

yo da man ^

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), December 26, 2000.

Martin,

Thanks for all your hard work and the time you and others have invested into the GICC. It is a unique and great resource. It's your call as far as continuing it. If you can keep it going for a while, I'm sure readers will be very appreciative.

-- Michael Todd (rebasdaddy@aol.com), December 27, 2000.

Martin and all other regular posters, I can imagine how hard it must be to continue posting without getting a real "Atta boy" and physical pat on the back. Well, consider yourselves patted and here's an "ATTA BOY" and a "YESSSS!" to one and all who keep this board going. It is clearly your decision whether to continue but I hope you Martin, and all the other regular posters do.

-- poconojo (jberman478@aol.com), December 27, 2000.

What I think Martin is stating is he's not pleased that he's the primary poster here folks. We ALL need to be posting.

I will try to post more as well. There are many topics that are not being covered, aside from the energy issues.

-- (perry@ofuzzy1.com), December 27, 2000.

With regard to Martin's original question, yes let's all do our best to keep this board running. Maximum news, minimum fuss. (Hey, maybe that should be our motto?)

I would like to respond to the comment "What I think Martin is stating is he's not pleased that he's the primary poster here folks. We ALL need to be posting." This is true. As an only occasional poster here, I can only remark that I would post more...if Martin and a few others didn't keep beating me to it! I am usually able to check the web at irregular intervals, and more often than not when I find something interesting, it has already been posted to GICC by the indefatiguable worker bees around here. I just can't dance that fast! Wow! I am in awe!

Happy holidays, --Andre in southcentral Pennsylvania

-- Andre Weltman (aweltman@state.pa.us), December 27, 2000.

Hi, Martin. I've delayed answering while seriously considering your questions because I'm so torn. Obviously those of us following the stories subscribe to the "slow unfolding" scenario but, without much concrete evidence to link the stories to y2k-glitches, it makes us appear to be just a bunch of collectors of sad news.

While I didn't have too much concern that electricity would be a problem, by the end of 2000 I was quite worried about oil, gasoline, and natural gas supply, and those worries appear to bearing out. Just yesterday our red-nosed premier was quoted as saying: "We didn't know supplies would run short; we didn't know we'd have so many turbines going off-line." Given that both the gov and the business world operates on both short-term and long-term projections, this lack of knowledge appears most puzzling. Something unexpected happened to cause that lack of knowledge.

So, I would suggest that we continue to monitor events for a few months yet, or until the oil and gas industry stabilizes. If we hit a phase where we ourselves feel we're just grabbing at straws, we'll probably stop from our own inertia. What do you think?

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), December 28, 2000.

<>

Rachel, it is true that fewer and fewer stories posted here are *directly* linkable to Y2K per se, but I don't see that as a problem. GICC has morphed, and serves as a useful site for collecting fresh information about our technically complex and fragile world.

And for many news items, a link to Y2K computer or social issues can be postulated...and may be raised on other discussion boards, such as the "new" Yourdon TimeBomb2000 board as one example. I have noted that items posted here are occasionally picked up elsewhere and discussed. GICC serves a purpose even beyond its direct readership. I suspect the ratio of lurkers to posters is particularly high on GICC, and that's great in my opinion.

As far as everything here being "sad news," that's merely a reflection of reality. If one desires happy-face news, the television and local daily "news"papers beckon. Each evening, I can tell how slow a news day it is by how quickly a pet cat or pet dog story appears on the local-market TV news at 6. (Or, for the cynical, this may indicate how big a story is being quietly buried...)

So long as the willpower remains, particularly by the most active posters including yourself and Martin, I hope the GICC board will continue. It serves a useful purpose whatever one thinks of Y2K. With many eyes, we can collectively see and collate much more information than any one of us could likely achieve in private.

GICC: "Maximum news, minimum fuss."

--Andre in southcentral Pennsylvania

-- Andre Weltman (aweltman@state.pa.us), December 28, 2000.

Edit to my previous post: I cut-and-pasted Rachel's comment about "Y2K and sad news" and placed it inside the < > marks at the start of my reply, but for some reason it was stripped out by the software. Odd. No big deal, but I didn't want the <> to be seen as some weird emoticon.

--Andre in southcentral Pennsylvania

-- Andre Weltman (aweltman@state.pa.us), December 28, 2000.

HI Rachel,

I agree with you 100 per cent. I have many times thought that I was just a purveyor of 'sad news'. Andre is correct when he says that this forum has morphed into something other than a y2k forum. The world is changing very rapidly because of many factors, such as aging infrastructure, declining energy resources, water quality and supply, etc. It is very difficult to find this much information in one place. As for y2k I doubt that we will ever know the full story of that.

I believe that the readers of this forum are a very intelligent bunch and that they want to know what is happening around them the same as I do. I feel that if my efforts help other people, my time is more than justified.

I also feel that I am helping my own family by making them aware of what is happening to their world.

Martin

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), December 28, 2000.

Onward, then. :) Welcome, and thanks, to all the new posters of the past few days. Also, thanks to the many "old" posters who started and maintained this board from its conception. That especially means you, Martin, but also Lee?, Jennifer, Dee, Carl, spider, Doris, K, Andre, perry, and all the others whose names slip my mind just at the moment.

I do hope we can retain the board's international flavour.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), December 29, 2000.

MT & All who Contribute First - Thank You All Second - Please continue !!!!!! Third - This forum is the only one I've found with a fresh collection of highly updated infomation with out alot of BS. As one of the many lerkers Please continue & Thanks !!! Happy Holidays & Best Wishes for the future !!

-- awdragon (awdragon@yahoo.com), December 30, 2000.

You guys let the dogs out. GO TEAM GO. Information of this stature is a vital commodity. There is no place like GICC. We deserve to KNOW what it is that THEY don't want us to hear about. If you dare take away my only TRUE source of world wide information I'll.......cry. Keep the much apriciated source alive.

-- NdewTyme Late (NdewTyme@NdewTyme.com), December 30, 2000.

Thanks so much to everyone concerned!

-- Paula Gordon (pgordon@erols.com), December 31, 2000.