XaraXone and Forums on i/us - please read

[chris-dickman]

Greetings all:

For those of you who don't know me, I'm one
of the two co-founders of i/us.

As has been mentioned in another forum here, i/us was sold earlier this
year to Getty Images (which also owns EyeWire).

I have been told that much of what is on the i/us site today is under
review and that Getty is evaluating the products and services we offer. These
decisions will be finalized before the end of the year. The content areas
are hosted much as an ISP hosts and this is not a business that Getty is in.

Best selling products at i/us, including Xara X, have a good chance of
continued sales and support by Getty. Specifically regarding the XaraXone,
we hope to see that continue on in the new year, but hosted elsewhere than on the i/us site.
Until the end of this year, it and the Forums will be available as always, and I'm also optimistic the Forums will live on, ideally in an environment that provides greater resources than i/us.

Regarding the upcoming release of Xara X, you can can purchase it from Xara or i/us. Either way, the price is identical (actually cheaper from i/us if you're in the UK, because of no VAT) and either way you can download it at once and will automatically be sent a CD by Xara. If you buy from i/us, you also get access to the new Insider area for Xara X, as well as access to the existing Insider area -- this is a nice benefit if you purchased CorelXARA from somewhere other than i/us.

What's the value of the Insider area, if its future isn't assured, you may well ask. I can only say that it will remain the incredible resource it is until at least the end of the year on i/us, and if we can demonstrate that people really value it, via upgrades and new purchases of Xara X, its future is that much more assured.

I can say frankly that Gary Priester and those of us at i/us have stuck by the Xara community and tried hard to deliver value to it over the years.

One thing is for sure: the next few weeks will demonstrate the degree to which the Xara community on i/us values the XaraXone. You get to vote yay or nay. As always, your vote -does- count.





<blockquote>
<font color=green>Chris Dickman</font>
http://www.i-us.com/images/sig.gif
</blockquote>

[chris-dickman]

Greetings all:

For those of you who don't know me, I'm one
of the two co-founders of i/us.

As has been mentioned in another forum here, i/us was sold earlier this
year to Getty Images (which also owns EyeWire).

I have been told that much of what is on the i/us site today is under
review and that Getty is evaluating the products and services we offer. These
decisions will be finalized before the end of the year. The content areas
are hosted much as an ISP hosts and this is not a business that Getty is in.

Best selling products at i/us, including Xara X, have a good chance of
continued sales and support by Getty. Specifically regarding the XaraXone,
we hope to see that continue on in the new year, but hosted elsewhere than on the i/us site.
Until the end of this year, it and the Forums will be available as always, and I'm also optimistic the Forums will live on, ideally in an environment that provides greater resources than i/us.

Regarding the upcoming release of Xara X, you can can purchase it from Xara or i/us. Either way, the price is identical (actually cheaper from i/us if you're in the UK, because of no VAT) and either way you can download it at once and will automatically be sent a CD by Xara. If you buy from i/us, you also get access to the new Insider area for Xara X, as well as access to the existing Insider area -- this is a nice benefit if you purchased CorelXARA from somewhere other than i/us.

What's the value of the Insider area, if its future isn't assured, you may well ask. I can only say that it will remain the incredible resource it is until at least the end of the year on i/us, and if we can demonstrate that people really value it, via upgrades and new purchases of Xara X, its future is that much more assured.

I can say frankly that Gary Priester and those of us at i/us have stuck by the Xara community and tried hard to deliver value to it over the years.

One thing is for sure: the next few weeks will demonstrate the degree to which the Xara community on i/us values the XaraXone. You get to vote yay or nay. As always, your vote -does- count.





<blockquote>
<font color=green>Chris Dickman</font>
http://www.i-us.com/images/sig.gif
</blockquote>

[tad]

Thank Chris,,,That sort of clears things a bit.

Gary, do you have a statement about all this ?

(You the main man, where you go - we go)

Tad...... [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]
(No, I don't mean New Mexico)

[chris-dickman]

Just so you know, Gary's been offline for almost a week, while he makes a major house move. He should be online within a few days and as always, I'm sure he'll dive right in.

CD.

<blockquote>
<font color=green>Chris Dickman</font>
http://www.i-us.com/images/sig.gif
</blockquote>

[diniel]

Chris,

As you'll probably have already have seen, there is a (short) thread suggesting that there is an interest from people buying Xara elsewhere to buy a subscription to the Insider webpages.

People like me, doing my bit for our trade defecit and Buying British, would still like to peer into this mysterious world of the Insider - even if it does mean a bribe at the door over and above the purchase price having already bought from the Great Guys of Gaddesden.

Any plans to introduce this?

[mgeduld]

This sucks. Sorry, Chris, I appreciate what you're saying, but i-us's uniqueness has always been the fact that it's a one-stop-shop for virtually all graphic concerns. It's where Xara users can rub shoulders with Photoshop users, etc. I don't know of any other community like this on the web.

Sounds like, in the best scenario, it will be broken up into separate sites.

So I'm not worried about the Xara content. I'm sure it will go somewhere. I'm worried about the energy we will lose when i-us is divided up into tiny chunks. To me, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

For what it's worth, I teach a huge number of computer graphics courses every year. At the end of each class, I recommend this site as the best resource on the web.

Marcus Geduld
{ email me } { visit me }

[gwpriester]

Hi everyone.

I have just completed the portion of the move where we cheauffered the cats and birds 1100 miles from SF to New Mexico. The movers come tomorrow with the furniture.

I was informed shortly before I left last weekend that the XaraXone was not going to be continued after the first of the new year.

Kate Moir has offered to host the new XaraXone by continuing Xara's support for the Xara tutorials and by making server space available.

Unfortunately, support (money that pays for my services) will not be available from Xara or i/us at the end of the year.

So, we either need to find some new sponsors, and or decide if as a group, we can pay a subscription fee to compensate me for my time.

As soon as the move is over, I will post a survey in this forum to try to determine if we have enough persons interested in subscribing to make this happen.

I'm sorry to have been absent at such a critical time and I thank all of you who have posted thus far in favor of continuing the Xone.

I'll be in touch in a few days.

Gary
[email]garypriester@earthlink.netGary's E-mail address

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

Be It Every So Humble...

[davezub]

It looks like I won't be hanging around here in 2001. Glad to see Xara is chipping in the bandwidth and drivespace, but I'm somewhat perplexed as to why they will not compensate you, at least partially. I know they are going to be paying High Road a pretty penny, and they need to. For years you, and other key forum players, have been keeping Xara afloat externally being Xealots. Hell one of the reasons I decided to buy several Xara products over the years has been this forum and its community. I can't believe Xara won't throw some pounds your way.

In any event, I believe this community will be intact, and thrive, where ever it is hosted, and this community will take care of its elders <grin> (including monetarily). Man, I'm getting teary eyed, see ya....

Dave Zubrowski

[tad]

Glad you made it to New Mexico, Gary. I've often suggested tossing money your way. Xara subscribers, even with modest contributions, would probably pay better than most book deals.

NOW ,,, Do YOU have any feelings about whether we should buy XaraX from i-us or Xara Ltd.????????

I notice Chris still has his name next to the i-us logo. That says something.

Regards,,,,,,,,,,,,,Tad....... [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

[Egg Bramhill]

I'm with Marcus on this one. I use this forum firstly for the Xara input, but at the same time I can also go into the Flash forum for help. The forum as it stands is terrific and the one reason I come to I/us.

I was considering buying Xara X from I/us to save myself the 17.5% vat but I'm afraid I'm now inclinded to purchase it direct from Xara.com as I have with my other Xara products.

The owners of I/us will be the losers in the long term. I'm sure this forum is strong enough to continue elsewhere.

Regards

Egg.