posted on July 31, 2000 12:30:29 AM new
And you know what is even more interesting Zina? In the 60's and 70's we tried to create change by rejecting the world of our parents. ..you know, the rejection of the race for the almighty dollar..I'm sure you remember the counter culture values.
Yet, when we become part of something that may change the world...that something is based on pure commercialism! We have become the ultimate capatilists. The revolution we have been successful at is the one that had to do with chasing the dollar. LOL!
I think that the joke was on us!! In the end, we are more like our parents than even they were!
posted on July 31, 2000 12:38:35 AM new
hehehe..........Amy, I even suffer from the same ailments as my Mom! It is spooky. But all joking aside, you can not organize people around altruism, only necessity! That was the lesson we had to learn.
posted on July 31, 2000 12:46:09 AM new
And that was the lesson our elders tried to teach us...but like every younger generation, we had to learn from experience.
I not only have my father's ailment (diabetic) but a few years ago I looked in the mirror and the person looking back at me was my mother! Much as I loved her, it was disheatening to realize that I had become my mother.
posted on July 31, 2000 12:47:31 AM new
fountainhouse,
I had posted a warning for your comments about radh. It has been brought to my attention how wrong I was and that many posters are not addressing the topic. My apologies.
To Everyone,
Please remember to address the post and not the poster.
Joice
Moderator.
[ edited by joice on Jul 31, 2000 01:07 AM ]
posted on July 31, 2000 12:53:07 AM newJoice: Huh? Fountainhouse was merely tallying the responses to the original post! Now, some of *those* deserve moderating for being insulting, but there is nothing in Fountainhouse's post that does.
posted on July 31, 2000 08:07:33 AM new
Radh: Actually you're making a very good point. The world decides what it wants and businesses need to adapt accordingly. Only in the last 50-100 years this was the case. Change used to happen so slow or not at all. Now change passes you by in a blink of an eye. Frightening at times; exciting at other times.
"If you lend someone $20, and never see that person again, it was probably worth it."
posted on July 31, 2000 01:34:21 PM newzina: thanks for showing on up.
You wrote:
"I understand Rad completely. She is not being negative, quite the contrary. Do any of you really realize the power Pierre and Jeff's idea has? If they were political instead of just a pair of geeks, they could have taken over the World in 5 years instead of just ecommerce! It doesn't matter who runs eBay, eBay has taken on a life of it's own because it satisfies a need that knows no geographical boundry, knows no political affiliation, knows no religion, race or language. Nothing man or God has ever done before has been so Universally accepted without the shedding of one single drop of blood(except perhaps from a paper cut!).
"Yes, I miss my community, I miss the old days but as Rad says, my grandchildren will remember that I had a part in changing the World. That is alot more than I ever managed in the 60s or 70s!!"
~ ~ ~
I am sure to this day there are people who decry the change in the original Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Shoppe.
And yeah, eBay is a bit overwhelming and breathtaking, and so is lots on the Internet nowadays.
On July 4th this year, when eBay started charging listing fees at eBay.uk, over here was a very compelling post to declare one's independence from eBay, but see, that type of thing belongs to an earlier day and age.
Can you imagine were the descendants of the original inhabitants of the thirteen colonies to suddenly insist and complain -- Hey, USA, git ridda this infrastructure, git ridda alla these international problems, git ridda etc,etc,etc
eBay is here to stay and has an amazing future. I understand that many will not like being part of such a mammouth enterprise, and that's fine, as there are plenty of secondary sites all over the Net, but me, in the time I have left, I realize that I ain't sitting drinking coffee in the eBay Cafe on Main Street in mid-America no more.
Zina, for the time I have left, I wanna see where this is going, and frankly, I'm already at JFK with ticket in hand, lol --- we ain't going to Disneyworld, we're going global! lol!
posted on July 31, 2000 01:39:11 PM new
quickdraw29: you sound very well educated and well read -- thanks for sharing your comments with me, as really, I mean, this is sooooooo NEW a phenomenon, and I do know people, experts have said things would speeeeeeeeed uPPP, but I mean, really, this is truly extraordinary, ya know? I mean I'm toooooooo olde for this, but I must admit its kEwL to the MAX. Just wait until ALLA the inventions and discoveries in technology and science start entering our lives in mundane practical ways, lolololol! Faster and faster...
posted on July 31, 2000 01:47:56 PM new
One time radh makes sense another I think she is just rattling our chain when bored to see how we will bark. If so it works. I will hav a big wine cooler and se if it looks different.
posted on July 31, 2000 02:30:45 PM new
zina mentioned, "Yes, I miss my community, I miss the old days but as Rad says, my grandchildren will remember that I had a part in changing the World."
~ ~ ~
Yeah, Zina, it ain't often that a tiny hamlet becomes a global capitol in so short a time. Anyway going backwards is not possible, and besides there may be some positive things to be said about a truly fully cosmopolitan community, hey?
posted on July 31, 2000 02:35:25 PM new
Rad, you are one of the true friends I have found through eBay. We don't always agree but that is OK. We trust and respect each other enough not to have to always agree. You and I see. Amy sees, Ray sees.......lots of people see. Pierre's vision is so simple, so basic, that it can be hard to see if you are always looking for twists and curves. BTW, I bought eBoys and am reading it now!
posted on August 1, 2000 08:39:13 AM new
zina: In another messagethread I mentioned that current ecommerce obviously needs SO much R&D that it resembles the state of civilization in the paleolithic era.
And then there's us in the here & now, on the eve of the 21st Century, and what eBay looks like to us might perhaps be compared to the Great Pyramid, (sans pharoah(s)), i.e., as opposed to very earlier prehistoric paleolithic times.
So while we're in ancient history, so to speak, admiring our handiwork and criticising anything we think that might conceivably mar that ediface, eBay Itself has broken through a time barrier and is ahead, awaiting us, pulling us toward the future, towards the actual 21st Century.
eBay is an idea whose time has come.
It is, as you say, distinguished by its very simplicity; however, within that very simplicity resides the kernal of an entirely different world.
A year and a half ago, many of my posts about the sociological implications of "an eBay" really got on your nerves every so often, but see, although not in error, what was essentially wrong with them, and with others' similar concerns about Community, Humanity and History is that the ideas were operating within a much too infintesimal framework.
zina, eBay is a simple idea, granted, but what it is only becomes comprehensible within a panoramic context, a much larger screen, altogether: an altogether "different movie", so to speak, nothing for which we hold a framework to contextualize it, nor any basis for comparison.
eBay is an idea whose time has come.
And that necessarily means that a whole lot has changed, lots! And you add onto that and the inventions and discoveries and developments in ALL other professional fields......and w@w!
posted on August 1, 2000 11:15:17 AM new
Radh Posted:
I have woken up in the morning to find my entire business DESTROYED in the name of MBA cross-marketing.
Translation: I am unable to even try to compete. I quit at the first sign of competitiion. I believe the the big guy will always win. I believe that David did not slay golaiath.
There rest of us welcome the challange and are flourishing.
posted on August 1, 2000 11:48:13 AM new
zina: you have for quite some lonnnng time been reading my psuedosociological monologuees about alla this and indeed, I have tired you many times, thereby; and you will be thankful to learn that my several years worth of perplexity is entirely resolved.
You know Pierre and Jeff, whereas I do not, just things that are written about them. They are both very nice people with Pierre focused upon Community and Jeff presumably (?) upon philanthropy -- during such time that they have whilst not working 80 hour workweeks, that is.
You know, everybody knows, that Omidyar did NOT invent the online auction and that auctions had gone on in Usenet for years, that there were many email auction lists, and lotsa little auction sites.
Although Pierre's auction software has been given alot of credit for the success of eBay, I believe that it was these intrinsically nonmaterialist friends, of a libertarian bent, who are responsible for what became the world's greatest online auction. You've said on various occasions that it is Pierre's vision which is responsible for eBay.
Pierre's focus upon Community coupled with the complete freedom he gave one & all became a *magnet* to thousands on the Net back by '97. Benchmark venture capitalist Bob Kagle was focused upon the benefit for Humanity, and evidentally the two of them had long discussions about eBay, in these terms, on many occasions.
However, no matter how much you might think I'm *nice*, lol, nor how much you appreciate our eBay friendship, the fact is that I am actually in most respects quite amoral about this eBaysian Phenomenon, now that I've finally figgered it out enuff to totally put to rest my previously perpetual perplexity.
:::sigh:::
I now view eBay as strictly an Historical Event, albeit one transpiring over a great period of time, and justifiably an event of enormous magnitude.
eBay serves ONE purpose.
eBay will bring the greatest amount of good to the greatest amount of people, that and nothing more.
There is absolutely nothing even remotely meant to be either sentimental or idealistic about my conclusion.
Historically, eBay will end up bringing the greatest amount of good to the greatest amount of people. Let us hope that the nature of goodness, itself, is not too intrinsically finite and limited in quality & character, lol, --- but that is for the Future alone to determine.
posted on August 1, 2000 11:52:59 AM new
unknown: I was pointing out to some of the eBay Motors sellers that I know what they went through, as I experienced it firsthand myself, when Amazon decided to try out some "cross-merchandizing" techiques, followed shortly thereafter by the zShops, et al.
I imagine that there will be many many times when innovations by websites have unforeseen consequences and reverberations upon individual human beings. History is a strong taskmaster, absolutely ruthless to the extreme.
And actually, my business is in a thriving position at this current moment of time, thank you.
posted on August 1, 2000 12:37:36 PM new
unknown: incidentally, I have never referred to eBay as the "800 pound gorilla" nor as "Goliath." My allegorical representation was of a gargantuan Behometh; however, I believe that as a matter of fact that eBay, currently, is an infintesimal fraction of its potential and that it will be of a size difficult for the mind to conceptualize.
posted on August 1, 2000 02:25:56 PM new
I don't know about a behemoth, but Ebay has certainly gotten too big for it's britches. Forget "community" unless you don't consider "Global Community" an oxymoron. Forget about Disney, Radh, I'm thinking Microsoft. Or is that the much prophesied New World Order? Didn't Nostradamus mention something about it in his predictions? The End of the World as we know it. Lol, lol!
posted on August 1, 2000 02:52:07 PM new
Hi KatyD - I don't believe in TEOTWAWKI prophecies & predictions, but it was "interesting" to watch a significant number of people seem to worry excessively during 1999, particularly as the actual beginning of the new millennium is next January 1st.
Microsoft provides alotta of the technology, but the IDEA behind eBay changes things at the grass roots level.
posted on August 1, 2000 02:57:34 PM new
But Radh, there IS no "grass roots level" anymore. I assume you're talking "community" here. Haven't you heard? They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot!
posted on August 1, 2000 03:01:27 PM new
Ah, n0, I wasn't referring to "us - here", but was speaking of grass roots levels in 3-D terms. I just luv that metaphor you used, though, that they paved over Paradise, that's a *good* one, certain to be of good use in many people's repertoire, hey? lol!
[ edited by radh on Aug 1, 2000 03:17 PM ]
posted on August 1, 2000 09:49:08 PM new
Hmm, it seems that we have a bit of the Clinton disease here of attempting to figure out how the future will judge our present.
Since predicting the view of future history is the game afoot here: I predict that eBay will be viewed as at most a historical curiousity. Certainly it is not something which has Turned the World Upside Down, nor is there any indication it is likely to.
posted on August 1, 2000 10:03:59 PM new
Ebay has opened up person to person trade between peoples of countries a few years ago sworn enemies. It and the internet as a whole will do more to equalize the global landscape than any other real or imagined thing could. Indeed it will have a great place in the future history books.
posted on August 2, 2000 10:13:59 AM new
IMO, Radh's posts are like Rorschach tests, purposely obscure, designed specifically to see what people read into 'em.
I always find the results fascinating! Gives me a sense of the pulse of the OAI world at a given moment in time...
posted on August 2, 2000 10:22:54 AM newOh, fine the AW message boards are really a psychological, experimental lab and not the pulse of the OAI!
THANKS DCJ!!
Now the question is..did I pass or am I actually a certifiable fruitcake? (and for some of you out there it is not neccesary to answer that question! LOL!!)
posted on September 13, 2000 01:44:22 PM new
diana: In one of my first emails to YOU, I told you about the EXTREME difficulty that I have composing ANY posts, ANYTHING in writing, due to an obviously severe dyslexia, and horrendous problems with TYPOS - due to permenently crooked fingers from broken bones not properly set.
Ever since that time, you have occasionally commented with similar DISDAIN about my ideas and words and my INABILITY to express myself with the finesse and precision of an english Ph.D.
Since you enjoy commenting on my ADMITTEDLY POOR WRITINGS with such contempt and disdain, I have decided to no longer subject myself to you.
