ABabbitt

I'm gonna tell you a story because EVERYONE loves stories (especially my stories).

This is a story about a young woman who lived in a time when life was easier in the telecom world. When people had a plethura of jobs to choose from and were free to share their knowledge with just about anyone. Things were getting tight at the place she worked at and they threw her into a telecom position when she had only actually ever seen the switch maybe twice. She took over this job with not much knowledge and even less "guts" to do it. So one day she sat down to the computer that she had inherited (Pentium 90 I think it was) and typed in "Learn PBX" into her search engine of choice. Low and behold the all mighty Internet brought her to a site that appeared to be sent from Heaven. It was filled with goodness and knowledge and mercy for those who were naive about the ways of the PBX. The site was "PBXinfo.com"

Well, shortly after this the young woman realized she had inherited a switch that was from Hell. It had not seen preventative maintenance EVER probably. It was dieing a slow and painful death. But, she saw great things in this switch it was the largest switch that Nortel makes (which she learned from pbxinfo.com) and she was determined to see it survive (along with all the other equipment she had inherited).

So she signed up for this site. Not knowing what it might or might not do for her. And she posted naive and ignorant questions and they were always met with so much grace and humbleness. Strangers from across the country and around the world answered them and gave her truthful, honest help. At this point in time her company didn't have a maint contract (hence the poor condition of the equipment) and the vendor relationship was somewhat strained.

Well, one day she came in and her entire switch had gone down. NO dial tone, no loops up, NOTHING. So she frantically logged onto the site and posted her plea for help. Well, low and behold a kind man named Jack and another named Rick told her to come into chat and they would help. Within a matter of a few minutes they taught her how to INI, how to stat loops, how to ENBL loops, etc and she was back in business. My dear friends, this could have easily been service call worth thousands of dollars. But, some kind people helped a woman in distress.

As I stated before, this was in a time when things were simpler and less strained in telecom. People had jobs and were secure in them. No one was threatened by a free community where everyone helped everyone. BUT, now things are different and people have to make choices for themselves about who they help and why. Also, when that young woman realized that this resource that she had come to rely on for knowledge (and had made some excellent friends on) was threatened by finances, she decided to do her part to say "thanks" and to make sure it stuck around for others to use.

Now, she is sad again and she sees a new threat to her community of friends (aka telecom geeks) because of bickering and fighting over who they will help and who they won't and who should pay and who won't. It's sad to her and to her friend Rick, who've been fairly clear that everyone is welcome here and can post, but they've also been clear that we can't afford to keep this running without some people investing in it with us. They enjoy this and they enjoy what they do so much and it's sad to see this happening. Can't we all just get along? If you want to help the site stay alive, please subscribe. Because if you don't you'll be subjected to more sob stories from me. (I can see hundreds of you clicking on the link now just to make this stop.)

Thanks for listening.

Please feel free to chime in with your own tearful saga if you would like and that might make more people subscribe just to make us all shut up.

AB (aka the woman in the story)

ps Where is TP when we need him? I miss him.

[Edited on 7/5/2003 by ABabbitt]