From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Sat Mar 30 2002 - 03:52:13 MST
In the event of an attack the product is probably worthless
unless either your Palm is EMP hardened or you are far enough
away to need little advice besides not going toward the blast
and paying attention to prevailing winds, etc.
The pages on the site are very jumpy between selling the
product, talking very briefly about software in general and
talking about things the author thinks are cool but probably
aren't to a lot of reader's taste and interrupt the flow.
The questionnaire and the below make some pretty insulting
assumptions about where people that aren't interested or find
the treatment somewhat objectionable are coming from. Having
such that obvious in the site selling the product drives
potential sales away.
Things like talking about being sure to look at the mushroom
clould if one safely can because it is so beautiful are WAY over
the top.
It would be better if the software trained the user to keep this
information mostly in their head and do relatively simple
computations manually as this is all that can be counted on in
such an event. Even the most dedicated nerd is not likely to be
plopped down on the sidewalk poking at his Palm at such a time.
On my list of things to buy this is not way up there. I would
be more interested in how to survive the police state we are in
(imho) greater danger of becoming.
- samantha
David Lubkin wrote:
> At 07:21 PM 3/28/2002 -0500, Alex Blainey wrote:
>
>> David. I think Fallout Shelter is on first view a good product. I am
>> concerned that most people won't be convinced to buy it until they see
>> a brilliant flash of light in the sky.
>
>
> Thank you. Looks like the public falls into three categories:
>
> 1 - Visceral yes. They are already committed to a prepared mindset.
> Obviously, subscribers to misc.survivalism would be good prospects. And
> I think extropianism by definition subsumes the more rational aspects of
> survivalism.
>
> 2 - Visceral no. Along with sending it to you guys, I also told a
> mailing list of software entrepreneurs I'm on. Most are liberal,
> anti-gun, fairly young. A few people got it, but the most common
> reaction was that my product was loathsome because it (they thought)
> preys on people's fears. And that anyone who would buy it is a paranoid
> loon who's on the lookout for black helicopters.
>
> 3 - Potentially persuadable. I hope that my calm, methodical style will
> be effective. I say that the product costs no more than a good smoke
> alarm because I want them to view it as a cheap, prudent precaution.
>
> I was surprised that the reaction from the other list was so empathic.
> Here's an interesting dilemma: I'm about to pitch this to news media as
> something they should cover. Ideally, in the news section now and then
> a review in the technology section when the product is actually
> shipping. From what I know of mainstream journalists, they have a lot
> in common with the chaps on that other list. So it seems like there's a
> fair chance that the people I need to write about it are predisposed to
> abhor the idea. *sigh*
>
> Perhaps the right answer is to go directly to misc.survivalism, and
> maybe gun or conservative groups, and see if I can establish a modest
> sales level and customer base and then look for mainstream press coverage.
>
> And perhaps the technical press (ComputerWorld, Handheld Computing,
> etc.) would treat it as straight product news.
>
>> Blimey ! was that a questionaire or was that a questionaire ?
>
>
> And thank you for being the first to fill it out. Were there any
> questions that you did not feel would be useful to me in making
> decisions about marketing and future product development? I wish I
> could get those nay-sayers to fill it out, too, so I have a clearer
> sense of the demographics of the Visceral Nos.
>
>
> -- David.
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