Posted by DJ on June 07, 1999 at 10:18:26:
In Reply to: Re: Is this something that WE can do? posted by Barbara Herr on June 07, 1999 at 07:35:23:
Barbara,
I can tell you how to respond to your doc's statement. You say "whatever... can you please visit the site and see for yourself? You will realize that it is NOT a 'for-profit' site".
I'll explain the specifics of the ".com" thing so it will make a little more sense...
When a person, organization, company, whatever, registers a website address, they have three choices after the "dot". The first, the original is "com". In theory, yes "com" does stand for commercial (for-profit), but there is absolutely NO regulation from the internet Gods as to what goes on any of the sites.
The second option is "org". Again, in theory, "org" stands for organization (not for-profit). And again, there is absolutely NO regulation by the internet Gods as to what information can go on a ".org" site. To make my point clear, there are some VERY large websites out there making millions of dollars per year using ".org" after their name. But we won't talk about that right now :-)
The last option is "net". In theory, "net" stands for network. Everything that I've already said about .com and .org applies here too.
The reason that I originally registered clusterheadaches".com" was for simplicity sake. Think about it. Dot com is where it all started. When you think of a website address, you automatically think of ".com" If you type Yahoo in the address bar of your browser, you will automatically be sent to http://www.yahoo.com Not ".org" or ".net"
Have I made my point?
Barbara, your doctor probably made that remark "off the cuff" and then went and read the site, but who knows. Either way, his comment shows that he doesn't know as much about the internet as he may think he does. Ever hear the phrase "he knows just enough about the subject to make him dangerous"?
This is a perfect example of one of the hurdles that OUCH faces as it starts to take shape. There will be many, many, many more little hurdles just like this one for us in the future. Sometimes they won't seem like hurdles, they'll seem like brick walls. The important part to remember is that hurdles can be jumped and brick walls can be torn down. All it takes is a little effort. All we can do as a group of sufferers is get the information out there, answer the questions that come up to the best of our ability and look forward to the next hurdle and wall.
Together, we are one.