Zoom You, Fella

[Methuselah]

I am starting this thread to start a conversation about whether this group should have a Zoom site. I suspect most of you are Zoom users now, either voluntarily for family matters or as a job requirement at work. For those of you not familiar with the concept there’s a lot to find on Google, and many stories in newpapers discussing its effect on life. The first decision that we’d have to make is who is the Admin at that site, what they call a Sponsor. The cost is about $100/year, which I and I hope others would contribute to. All of the other members would be free. The next step would be to select a Sponsor. It doesn’t have to be Gob unless he wants that job too. It won’t be me because I’m retired and can’t guarantee to be around long enough. The ideal candidate would be younger and friendly with Gob. I won’t make any nominations because that would be a kiss of death. It leads to other thoughts:
I’ve been having conversations on another web site with another old friend who was an analyst using analog computers to simulate aircraft, while I did so digitally. It is ironic that we now are both simulating life using Zoom and web sites. They are our best options in a quarantine. The main effect Zoom has for our family sessions is that you can see someone talking and pick up the visual signals from them and others while they are talking. You can yell back at them, but you can’t punch them. This makes the environment much different from a web site where one sees only words. It would be fun to see what some of the wackos here look like when talking or listening. It does change one’s behavior. I’ve been told I write too much here. I was also talkative in real life. On family zoom I’ve been criticized for being taciturn, mostly watching and not talking. It leads to other points in self-analysis.
My family is having conversations on how to get one of the oldest family members, a cousin who lives life in isolation, to use Zoom. She is not at all a Techie, and her physical problems require her to live in a wheelchair and to have limited hand dexterity. I scoff at the use of touch input on an iPhone. She is even less likely to use that device. My family lives in 3 corners of the continent. If we ever want to see each other we need to find a solution like Zoom. We’re negotiating on getting the cousin into the group now, with a session on Thanksgiving Day on Zoom.
The self-analysis gets really deep in negotiations. In earlier meetings we appointed a sister of mine as main point of contact with that cousin and her brother, who lives near her. I got some bright ideas yesterday and decided to call both of them to get more facts. I later found that my sister had already made a call, coming up with my bright ideas on her own. My calls were counter-productive in that they showed my cousin that she might be stepping into a mess, where she’d be required to make a lot of decisions on topics she didn’t understand. I wrote to my sister with an apology for making the fragile talk with the cousin more fragile by infringing on my sister’s role. She wrote back a pleasant note stating that’s what they all expected from a Big Brother, and they knew how to deal with it. I’ve been struggling on how to describe my style on web sites. It is as a Big Brother. There are a group of crackpots here who attacked me viciously a few days ago, for reasons I didn’t understand. It appears they all have sibling competition issues, with all being younger than their Big Brother. My style set off bad memories. One of the rules of the Big Brother Guild is always retaliate. I’ve been ignoring the crackpots here, but I’ll get back to them later.

[TPFKA@W]

NO.

[BoSoxGal]

I wouldn’t usually ask such a personal question, but have you by any chance ever been assessed for ASD?

[Methuselah]

I'd answer, BSG, but you blocked me. I'll try a PM.

[BoSoxGal]

I can view your posts anytime I like; having you on my foe list just gives me the option.

Please stop sending PMs.

[Methuselah]

I have observed on myfamily site some women don't like being on camera. They sit next to their husband, but you can't see them. But they do enjoy the talking part, and seeing others.

[Methuselah]

BSG, I'll send you a PM that I answered you here. Your technique gives you too much power. If I post something I can't tell if you opened it, or are keeping the boycott on. If I have to PM every time I post something that might concern you it means that the boycott is one-sided. As I am on the other side of a blocking move too I will report that I never open that guy's stuff. This convention makes my files much shorter.

[BoSoxGal]

I’d bet money on Aspergers, diagnosed or not. I had to quit a job I really loved because of the insanity of trying to work with a supervisor with Aspergers. The board invited him to move on to other opportunities not long after I did.

I’m not patient at all with overly controlling people, whatever the diagnosis at the root of the obsessive need to tell other people how to be and act.

I won’t make the mistake of looking again. Thanks for saving me the time in future!

PS - I take no pleasure in how things have evolved since your arrival. A new voice wouldn’t have been unwelcome at all, but you are being truly obnoxious and I can’t believe at 80-something nobody’s ever pointed this out to you before, this propensity to assholery. If you just can’t control yourself I feel badly, but it doesn’t make it any less obnoxious. If you’re doing this purposefully despite numerous pleas from folks here to just chill out/step back, then you’re a jerk undeserving of my sympathy. Can’t help feeling it though because I’m just overly empathetic that way.

[Methuselah]

BSG, I won't respond because I don't know if you will see it. Adios

[Methuselah]

We suddenly got a notice on my computer to register for a Zoom session. It is easy to register, you just have to click on, wait a few seconds for it to load, and there’s the picture! It was my granddaughter and her kids on-screen! I asked are you a Sponsor, did you pay the $100? She said no, that’s the fancy version they sell to Old Geezers. You guys talk so long. She’s right, we have two-hour sessions once a week. She said if you use the free version, they cut you off after 40 minutes. She’s going to send me an email saying how to get started. She uses it for work, and sometimes socially, such as calls to relatives. So if someone here wants to start one, and you know the email address of someone who goes by a username here, you can start any time. You don’t have to get more than one other participant, and you can connect up to 50 people at a time. They are all on screen at the same time, and the amount of space they show is big enough to see the always moving bobbing heads of her six- and eight-year old’s, and even talk to them if their mother sits them on her lap. If you’ve used an iPhone, it is like a super iPhone, similar features but a bigger picture and multiple others on separate windows. So go at it. You don’t have to include me or find a Sponsor. You don’t have to be affiliated with any website. I’ll report on our use of the system ourselves, but you should be able to find what to do from a Google search on Zoom, or by looking for Zoom’s website. My granddaughter will keep me current with today’s technology instead of vice versa. Thuse

[Bicycle Bill]

She said if you use the free version, they cut you off after 40 minutes. She’s going to send me an email saying how to get started.

Meth, nobody ever does somethin' for nothin'.  If there is a 'free version' of this somewhere, you can betcherass that someone has figured out a way to make a buck out of it somehow.

So if someone here wants to start one, and you know the email address of someone who goes by a username here, you can start any time.

.... even if it's only getting that email info (and whatever other personal info they manage to 'harvest') and selling it to god-only-knows how many spammers and scam artists.

It's shit like this, and the willingness of people to sign up for something that is "...free, free, FREE!" without asking any questions whatsoever, that leads to data breaches and the spread of computer malware and viruses.

Thanks but no thanks.

-"BB"-

[Methuselah]

Glad to leave you out, BB. I can't reach you unless you give me some of your private data, which can be sent by a PM. Your paranoia is protected. Not to be a salesman, but Zoom is in wide use. Speaking of that,it is none my business, but how is this site financed? I don't see any ads, or receive ads on my email whose address I've entered. Do they sell it to one of those services that sells email address lists to any scammer for a fee? Am I being paranoid?

[Joe Guy]

Zoom is not for me. Plan B is the closest I'll get to anyone on the internet that I've never met in real life.

[TPFKA@W]

Speaking of that,it is none my business, but how is this site financed

Just provide your credit card information to any member and we will take care of it for you.

ETA: There is a per word charge that you are billed for at the end of the year. But you can pay any of the senior members when you get your bill.

[Joe Guy]

Speaking of that,it is none my business, but how is this site financed

Just provide your credit card information to any member and we will take care of it for you.

Yes, our tradition is to have the newest member pay the annual fee to keep the board running. @W is our chief financial officer and usually handles the details once she gets your credit card number. However, as she wrote, you can give your credit card number to anyone here.

ETA: There is a per word charge that you are billed for at the end of the year. But you can pay any of the senior members when you get your bill.

Oh yeah. Then there's that....

[Methuselah]

Is that called irony, sarcasm, or evading the question? I will admit that some of my wandering around here lost is that I came from paid web sites where one was expected to ask questions, which would get answers. I"m learning how a free site works by blows around the head and shoulders. You should be careful about those misleading answers, because they may drive a naive Newbie away. Or to speculate further, is that a goal of this site?

[TPFKA@W]

You should be careful about those misleading answers, because they may drive a naive Newbie away. Or to speculate further, is that a goal of this site?

I could explain further, but there is a charge for that too. Press 1 if you want further information.

[Bicycle Bill]

Glad to leave you out, BB. I can't reach you unless you give me some of your private data, which can be sent by a PM. Your paranoia is protected. Not to be a salesman, but Zoom is in wide use. Speaking of that, it is none my business, but how is this site financed? I don't see any ads, or receive ads on my email whose address I've entered. Do they sell it to one of those services that sells email address lists to any scammer for a fee? Am I being paranoid?

If you truly are an engineer, you of all people should know the meaning of the acronym "RTFM".

Maybe you should have spent some time reading some of the other threads — like this one — or at least scanned through the sticky threads that are at the top of the page you seem to have made your own personal kitty-litterbox (the sticky thread here, or particularly the other one here) so you wouldn't have to ask such dumb-assed questions.

-"BB"-

[Bicycle Bill]

You should be careful about those misleading answers, because they may drive a naive Newbie away. Or to speculate further, is that a goal of this site?

I could explain further, but there is a charge for that too. Press 1 if you want further information.

Press '2' for information in Spanish.
Press '3' for information in Hindi/Urdu (we've off-shored our call center).
Press '4' for information in Dumbass.

I recommend you press '4'.

-"BB"-

[Scooter]

Seeing as how this thread is veering into the "how this forum works" area, it may soon be subjected to the same fate as the rest of Meth's threads if that line of discussion continues.