An Open Letter to EyeWire

[Bob C.]

I also have not yet made the jump from Corel to/and Xara, but have been lurking in the
Xara forum several months reading the issues, tips, tutorials, etc.

I was planning to buy Xara X when it is finished at i/us to take advantage of this forum and Gary's tutorials etc. I am also considering an upgrade to CorelDraw 10 (skipped CorelDraw 9 because of the forums).

The primary reason I visit the i/us site is to read the forums and the Graphically Speaking newsletter by David Huss.

The forums are very important to me, if they go I will go with them.

Bob C.

[pknair]

I moderate the Flash forum along with Bill Spencer, and we both showed up here some time ago looking for Flash tips. By the end, we'd both had so much fun here that we've stuck around - Bill for almost a year, now, and me for just over a year. During that time I've had a chance to explore a number of other parts of i/us - it's been an invaluable resource for me, and I know recommend it to any of my developers who come asking questions about graphics, multimedia or web design! The fact that everyone here is so friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable is unbelievable. If this place were to be shut down, an incredible resource would be lost. Personally, I think that EyeWire shouldn't take this site offline, but should instead pour a little money into advertising these forums, which are such an amazing set of resources!!!

Just my $0.02 CDN


hth,
Deep (just a guy)

<pre><font face="courier" size="2">,-----------------------------.

| Pradeep Kumar Nair, B.Math |

| Graphic/Multimedia Designer |

| ICQ#: 39102360 |

| Medius Communications, Inc. |

| http://www.medius.com |

`-----------------------------'</font></pre>
Moderator - i/us Flash Forum

[jclements]

I may be an outcast but I HATE using SURFING the internet. It like going to your mail box (the real one on your curb) and pulling out junk mail. EXCEPTION: I-US.com. It not too cluttered, easy to navigate, its sells good product, and its GOT CONTENT.

If I decide to BUY software via the Internet then I come to I-US.com.

If I want to get an ANSWER about using that software I come to I-US.com.

If I want to RECOMMEND a site to my friends I recommend I-US.com to them.

WILL I CONTINUE COMING TO I-US.com if the CONTENT IS REMOVED? NO! Which of course also means no purchases from them and no recommendations for them.

[jcarney42]

If eyewire closes this down, I take my money elsewhere. I will be puchasing XaraX (currently have Xara 1.2x). But not from here if they close down the special interest groups.

Joe Carney
[img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_mad.gif[/img]

[jcarney42]

seems my first post didn't make it.
so here goes,
If eyewire closes XaraXone and these forums, I will take my money elsewhere.
I will be purchasing XaraX, but not from here if they shut things down.

Joe Carney
[img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_mad.gif[/img]

[chris-dickman]

Xara has indicated they will be hosting the XaraXone in the future, so there will no interruption in availability of all the great content you have come to expect. Regarding these Forums, discussions are continuing on how best to best to keep them running and I hope to be able to post a message here soon indicating what will be happening. Thanks for your support.

<blockquote>
<font color=green>Chris Dickman</font>
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[mgeduld]

So many people have already mentioned that I/US is a splendid resource, so I won't add to that other than to say I feel the same (I too visit several times a day).

I am a computer trainer. I teach PhotoShop, Flash, Illustrator, Xara, etc. to hundreds of students each year. At the end of each class, I have the students start up their browsers and we visit I/US together.

I push the site as the best graphics resource on the web and suggest that they come here for additional info and help. I know that many of them have wound up buying products from the site, because they have told me so.

But it is the content that initially attracts them. If this is taken away, they will no longer come. And I certainly will no longer suggest that they do.

Marcus Geduld
Computer Trainer
Sotheby's, New York

Marcus Geduld
{ email me } { visit me }

[amoore]

Chris, the Forums comprise a significant portion of the content. They should not be considered separate.

I check the Xara forums once or twice a day on average. I save info from the forum posts in a kind of expert system. I love the tutorials and the Xealot, and I consider them to be crucial resources, but I haven't been able to commit the time to use them for months (although I hope to rectify that situation in the near future.) That means that my i-us content --and my lifeline-- Are the forums.

I've been an avid advocate of i-us since I first discovered the site several years ago. I've appreciated the ability to investigate various graphics resources that I might not know about otherwise, but that will never be the primary reason why I visit the site. Rather, I've bought software from i/us instead of another source in gratitude for the forums, tutorials and Xara newsletters.

I'm not interested in pushing yet another advertising outlet. I'm inundated with advertising, and I can't take it anymore. I'm becoming allergic to anything that is too slick or has any appearance of having advertising as its primary purpose -- even though much of my work pertains to marketing the software my company develops (which has nothing to do with graphics).

I'm also becoming allergic to any company that becomes ubiquitous. For example, in the fifteen minutes it takes me to walk from my office to my home, I see seven Starbucks, two of them directly across the street from each other. I'm beginning to have the same problem with Eyewire and Adobe.

I know how important advertising is, but in itself it's empty. To quote from a well-known campaign, the question is "Where's the beef?"

The answer is that these forums are not only the beef, but also the friends with whom you're sharing the meal.

I hope whoever's making the decisions about the forums understand that.

[will]

You have a way with words Allison, and I couldn't put it any better. I have been reluctant to give my two cents worth in this open letter to Eyewire because I really think its pointless. When I look at Eyewire they have an entirely different agenda than i-us. They are marketing prepackaged clipart, static and streaming, and also represent graphic artists. They are really more committed to keeping the graphic process in the dark and would rather offer the finished product to people who don't know how or have lots of money or think its too complicated. There is some kind of connection with Getty and Adobe. The "norm" in the graphics community is Mac and Adobe That’s what they are being taught in school. Xara is a large part of i-us and also symbolizes the rebel, can-do spirit of a lot of its visitors on the forum who do not follow the norm but think for themselves no matter how few people know about Xara. I am not an expert graphics person but am a small business owner who has dabbled in it for a few years starting with cad. less than one percent of small businesses are on the web and they constitute one of the largest growth opportunities. Xara fits that group nicely especially connected with a first-class forum as this one. Microsoft just invested in Corel for what some people think is to make inroads on Adobe and Macromedia because of it's strong graphics suit. Xara is poised to capture a large part of this market because of its ease of use and brute simplicity. But more important this forum is a treasure trove of information, as in the post on cropping a couple of days ago. people responded to SS fast and in-depth and I learned several new and different ways to crop.
To make a long story short I am also perplexed. I would think there would be a bidding war for this forum, And Gary Priesters tutorials. The moderators stay on top of things and it's a well run place were you don’t' have to deal with a bunch of foul language.

But I'm not trying to convince Eyewire of anything. I would like to see this place go solo owned by its members charging Eyewire, Getty, Adobe, Ulead, Macromedia, etc, etc for banner adds. .And with the horrendous amount of P.R. for xara just the referral scheme would pay for a lot. I don't see what all the loyalty is for i-us. The owners have already cashed out and they don't seem to have to much of a say-so in what the new owners are going to do. This Forum is really owned by all of it's members because they are the ones who make it work.
Business week for example has a system of marking certain areas of the web site which are only accessible to members. This makes it available for the first time user and enables you to buy in a little deeper as you go.

As you can tell I fit the Xara profile nicely, I’m not going with the flow here!

Will

[Robin Gilmor]

What is the purpose of buying this site & throwing out the attraction? Domain names are cheap.If your pupose is to to sell things-I come to this site in a buying mood.


I know that here I'm going to get suggestions of software,hardware ,etc. as it is used in the real world-not some packaged blurb on the box.


This site needs to be continued in it's entirety -all the different forums & content areas included.That's the whole point.[B] Here is a proven example of cross makerting that works-why throw it away?[B]


I came for help with Xara,but I've ended up also buying Hemera Photo-Objects & books for Corel Draw.I visited the Painter forum when it was a slow day in the Xara forum, & ended up buying a graphics tablet & I'm intending to buy Painter 6.

I know I can trust the experience & recommendations of the people who frequent these forums and also come to them for help with the products I do buy. NO other site can replicate the kind of unbiased immediate help you get here across such a wide range of products.


Someone making these decisions is not doing their homework.

[This message was edited by Robin Gilmor on October 29, 2000 at 10:04 PM.]

[This message was edited by Robin Gilmor on October 29, 2000 at 10:06 PM.]