Re: My Soap Box - Danger Will Robinson

 Bill

Maybe I'm not looking at the same site you are.  I don't see the faintest
resemblance except that they both have a round logo.  Is that what you
think is going to confuse people?

As usual, the rest of your rant makes no sense whatsoever. I never
defended the hostalibrary.com site and the issue has nothing to do with
the rest of your arguments.  Third grade debating tricks may work on
third graders, but the question has nothing to do with Martha Stewart.
 It involves the hosta.com site, which, unless we are looking at
different sites, I don't know how anyone could confuse them.  Except
maybe you.

And I'm pretty sure that Barbara may be right.  Hosta.com has been around
longer than my site, and it wouldn't surprise me if it was there before
hosta.org.  Maybe we should be criticising the AHS for trying to copy
Frida. I think you've been pretty consistent over the years in exhibiting
your lack of understanding how the real world functions, but anyone who
thinks that the hosta.com domain wasn't going to be snapped up by a hosta
vendor is obviously living in BillMeyer World.

Chick

Bill Meyer wrote:

  Hi Chick,
           About time we got back to the interesting netherworld of your
  reasoning! So, let me see if I have this straight --- If the nursery with
  the hostas.com site set themselves up as ahs.com or americanhostasociety.com
  that would be "pretty sleazy", but if they deliberately make their site look
  like the AHS site (I think you must have noticed at least some similarity in
  the decor) while using a domain name so similar that people might accidently
  type it in (as Lu did with hostalibrary.com) there is "absolutely nothing
  wrong" with that! That's a stretch even for your version of "business
  ethics" isn't it? I suppose it could be a co-incidence that they just
  happened to choose an identical look for their site. It's probably a
  co-incidence that whoever that is at hostalibrary.com chose that name to put
  up a links page too. Then, come to think of it, maybe that guy with the
  phony seed wasn't doing anything wrong e
  ither because he had co-incidentally
  named some of his own plants with those names. After all, he never said
  whose 'Mustang Sally' the seed was from. Maybe he wasn't really doing
  anything wrong at all, just conducting a little legitimate business. It
  might be another co-incidence that Martha decided to sell off that stock
  when she did too. Certainly she doesn't see how she did anything wrong. On
  the other hand, why was she lying about it if she didn't think she did
  anything wrong? Hmmmmm this business of pretending nothing is wrong with
  this kind of behavior sure gets to be a slippery slope, doesn't it?
          As I'm sure you know, .com was the first and still is the most
  widely recognized site name. You don't have to go too far back to when it
  was only .net and .com. Many non-commercial sites use that extension by
  preference beause it is always the first thing people think of. Hosta.com
  was the first name that was looked at for the AHS
   site, but it was already
  taken. To many people .com means the internet, not just internet commerce.
          As for fragrance, I'm talking about it as reality as in whether it
  exists or not. Believe it or not, some things exist that cannot be used to
  make money, so to you they would not be "practical".
                                                 ........Bill Meyer    

    Bill

    You're being goofy again.  Finally!  I was really getting bored.

    There is absolutely nothing wrong with the hosta.com site.  I won't speak
    to creativity, but your statement that they are trying to pretend to be
    the AHS is, as are most of your pronouncements, nonsense.  The AHS
    doesn't have a lock on the word "hosta", and there is absolutely nothing
    on the site that I saw that implies that it is anything other than a site
    selling hostas (.com does generally denote a commercial site, ya know).
    They've had this domain for a long time, and for all I know, they may
    have had it before hosta.org was started. I know that they were on the
    web before we were because I would have bought the domain if they didn't
    already have it.  If they were calling themselves ahs.com or
    ameicanhostasociety.com that would be pretty sleazy, but to think that a
    hosta nursery should not use the domain     www.hosta.com     is one of those
    ideas that I have begun to think of as BillMeyerisms.

    As to the other question, about fragrance, I guess it depends on whether
    you're talking about fragrance as a practical matter or as another
    BillMeyerism.  As a practical matter, it seems to me that if thousands
    and thousands of people have grown Halcyon, and nobody but Bill ever
    noticed that it was fragrant, then by definition, it is not fragrant.

    Simple as that.

    Chick

    Bill Meyer wrote:

      Hi Lu,
             I think when Jim Schwarz stopped paying for  

  www.hostalibrary.com     it    

      went back up for grabs. It was then bought by someone in Europe,  

  according    

      to Bob. He was concerned something like this would happen, but didn't  

  find    

      out until it was too late. My guess is that whoever is doing that won't  

  make    

      any money and will give it up soon.
             If you think that's bad, have a look at the AHS site  

  www.hosta.org    

      and this one       www.hostas.com       What do you think - lack of creativity,  

  or    

      someone trying to pretend they are the AHS to improve their sales? The
      graphics are free-use stuff included with Microsoft Frontpage so there's  

  no    

      theft involved, but is it really just a co-incidence?
             As to what kind of person does
      this stuff -- well I think
      "opportunist" pretty much covers it. I think the younger generation  

  likes    

      the word "user". They're the people who only care about what they can  

  get    

      for themselves out of people and things around them. I doubt they'd even
      know why you're mad.  

  ......Bill    

      Meyer

        OK, so I'm doing my usual database updating and come across a hosta  

  whose    

        description is a little unclear. And again, as usual, I go to the  

  greatest    

        place on the internet, the Hosta Library to look at the picture, only  

  my    

        mistake, I type in .com instead of .org.

        I could not believe my eyes. Some joker has set up a 'referral'  

  website    

      called

        Hosta Library. It lists links to other websites on various topics.  

  They    

        obviously know that OUR Hosta Library gets lots of hits, and are  

  counting    

      on

        people making the same mistake that I did. They are selling their  

  website    

      to

        companies in hopes that we will follow the links to their clients  

  sites.    

        Places like Pier One have subscribed.

        I gotta tell you, it's made me angry. Makes me wonder if the real  

  target    

      is

        hosta nurseries, and all this is just a cover. What kind of person  

  does    

      this?

        Other than the obvious answer which is an opportunist. I just hope

      everybody

        realizes that by using the links at this site, whomever owns it get  

  paid a    

        commission. Makes me ill. What does this have to do with Hostas? Not a

      DAMN

        thing. This is in my book, as bad as those dinner time solicitation  

  phone    

        calls.

        I know at one time there was a nursery that bought the name, and had  

  it    

      linked

        back to the REAL Hosta library. Makes me wonder what happened there?  

  We    

      should

        have picked up that as part of the library, I would have gladly  

  donated    

      for

        it's annual maintenance fee!

        Are there no ethics on the internet? I found this as offensive as some  

  of    

      the

        spam we get here. Turns my stomach!

        Getting off my soap box and kicking it in the corner!

        Lu & Dan

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