Take Ownership Of Your Thoughts

[Adamski]

Guys,

If you've ever written a letter to the editor of your local newspaper, you know that your letter will not be published unless you signed it and included your address and contact information. In other words, you need to take ownership of your statements in that letter or nobody will read it except the editor.

Internet based bulletin boards should also require posters to take ownership of their posts. I know that on other bulletin boards, posters use all kinds of alpha-numeric labels to disguise their true identity but I don't care about those boards. I'm not interrested in what some imposter poster has to say. I am interested in what thoughtful people have to say.

This bulletin board is special. This bulletin board is important. This bulletin board addresses real world issues of our industry. This bulletin board is manned by industry professionals who are mature and knowledgeable. Folks asking questions on this bulletin board want some accountability. They don't want some snotty-nosed kid throwing out something that he knows nothing about.

Just like writing a letter to the editor, when you take ownership of your post; you will be more careful and thoughtful about what you are writing. You will want the information to be accurate. You will want to edit out anything that you are unsure of. That is good because we certainly don't need impulsive, untested or unproven ideas being offered here unless they are labeled as such. So taking ownership of your posts is important. In fact, it's the key to a truly mature and useful bulletin board.

I've been posting my full name and exact location for almost 4 years now and believe me, I have not given my competitors any useful information that they could not find out by simply calling my attendant or looking in the windows of my laundromat at 4 AM. A public laundromat does not hold secrets from the public. It's not like we have some kind of secret recipe that only the dog knows. Our recipe is our floor plan and it's there for anybody to see.

So please take a moment to review how you identify yourself on this board. Take ownership of your words, statements and ideas. I'll value your thoughts much more if I am able to connect with you.

[bodman]

Larry you are so full of it, I know your real name is Mister fixit . lol

[STOUT]

Thanks Larry;
It is helpful to know the different people we associate with.

I hope meet many of you in person at the Clean show and get to know both your names and places.
I can see identity being a problem for the first FEW posts, but after that we should be more reveling. Those that are not it only makes the rest of us have lack of trust for your posts.

[laundry8me]

Larry et al,

Good points have been made about transparency. Your posting, Larry, inspired me to create a profile and signature. :)

[mjwalsh]

Larry,

Thanks for the valuable post.

Another reason to not be too anonymous is so we have the ability to support & shield each other some in case we post an observation 100% true that a particular manufacturer or distributor would rather be kept a secret. Issues like --- are the manufacturers & distributors doing their part in going in the direction of standardizing different interfaces & dimensions of housings for payment interfaces & other interfaces within the equipment?

Also components that are actually tested in --- in both a lab like & in the field setting --- & results posted for the light of the day to see ---- to make our industry healthier as a whole!

Mike Walsh King Koin of Bismarck

[kees]

To all of the above, I couldn't agree with you in reference to responsibility, accountability, and transparency. Thank you for taking the time to compose and contribute to such an important post.

Suzy Kee
:cool:

[CanCanCase]

Gang-

I've agreed 147% with the opinions stated in this thread. I've not replied because I felt it had already been said as well as I could have (or better.) Just by accident, I noticed my post-count and decided now would be a good time to say something along this vein.

I've recently been "called out" on another board for offering too much opinion and not enough factual answer to questions posed by an individual not yet in this business. It all boiled down to several strong opinions being voiced, one of which was mine. When the opinions expressed didn't meet with the OP's expectations, he got very direct and "chewed me out" for not giving a straight factual answer (which, in reality, I had, but it got lost.)

I've also been complimented as a "savvy veteran of the laundromat business" and have recently been accused of having a "business plan that should be admired for its experience and wisdom." Let me set the record straight: I formed my LLC in September, 2009, bought my first building in October, 2009 and began construction. I bought my first operating laundromat in February 2010, and began remodel (construction) of that store and opened the first building in April or May of 2010. February 2011 brought the purchase of my second functioning laundromat/third property/Store #3, and I'm - of course - on the prowl for the ideal #4, #5, etc... "Today, laundromats on the Southern Oregon Coast. Tomorrow, we try to take over the world!" "NARF!"

There's another board I read occasionally where I was politely asked to "disable whatever that thingy is that puts your name at the end of every post!" This, then, ties back in to taking responsibility for what you post here. My name is Case Harris. I'm not a long-time veteran of the laundromat industry, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express a few times! (or I play one on TV?!)

Point being, this is who I am. I try to offer as much help and advice as I can to anyone who will accept it. Sometimes my delivery is about as well accepted as 10-grit sandpaper being used for toilet paper, but the intention is always meant to be either helpful or funny. If you don't "get it" or don't agree with it, at least know who I am, where I'm "coming from" and that I firmly believe in your right to a different opinion or way of doing things. Also, please know that for every bit of help or advice given, I've taken away 10 times as much just by reading and discussing.

Thanks for letting me vent. Now back to your regularly scheduled Planet Laundry...

-Case

[Adamski]

Case Harris,

Thanks for always telling it like it is ... or ... at least, like you view it. You being a card guy and me being a DCO (dollar coin only) guy, we've had our share of disagreements but we've always treated each other with respect. Thanks also for pointing out the difference between the Planet Laundry BB and the off brand BB where anonymity is encouraged.

[CanCanCase]

Larry-

I don't necessarily disagree with you either... DCO seems like a great system, and if I weren't hell-bent on maximizing technology in my stores, it would be a great way to go. As I mentioned in another thread, the cards have (for me) a slight edge in the trust/security arena.

The "other guy" in the "other BB" was actually asking for pros/cons about tokens. He figured a $1 token would solve quite a few problems, like businesses raiding his change machine, coin drop lint jams, etc. The comment I was "called out" on was when I said something to the effect of, "oh, tokens will work fine and people will love them... those tokens are called DOLLAR COINS!" (Funny, one of the objections to cards was that many of his potential customers were rule-breaking Amish. Mr. Prospective Buyer couldn't see them using "the devil card" instead of cash... That just reinforced my suggestion for dollar coins, since they're real currency and have tangible value in the US. Nope... tokens were the way to go.)

Hmmm... I wonder how long it will be before I get an email or PM from another bulletin board quoting this post? Big Brother is watching, after all! I just wish "Big Brother" had a name so that I could agree to disagree "in person" instead of by proxy.

-Case

[laundry8me]

Case,

I followed that conversation on the "other" board, much to my delight. It was very entertaining! :D

"That" board sometimes reminds me of the wild west; Boisterous and at times raucous. I grew up in Montana and know all about the "wild west".

[DaveLevenson]

Over the years, I have participated in Internet-based message boards focused on general telephony, pay phones, several niches of the computer industry, laundromats, and most recently, Toyota Prius automobiles. I have never found it necessary to hide behind a "screen name" or other pseudonym. If I write something, on any message board, I write as if it were going to be read by everybody -- my customers, my mother, my wife, my doctor, my friends, my competitors, even my high school English teacher, as well as lots of people who don't know me at all. What I write has nothing I need to hide. Signing my real name helps remind me of this policy. I have written to the 'net since 1986, and I haven't yet regretted anything I've said.

[CanCanCase]

Dave- which "'net" was that in 1986? FidoNET? ARPAnet? Private BBS? In '86 it would have been at about 300 baud, eh?

- Case

[mjwalsh]

When I was at the clean show in 2007 --- the fact that some of us used our real names enough -----was helpful. In fact it increased the opportunity to meet several people that way in person including Dave Levenson.

It could make us a bit more vulnerable but it is still worth it not to have life "too fear driven"!

Mike Walsh kingkoin of bismarck

[mjwalsh]

Dave- which "'net" was that in 1986? FidoNET? ARPAnet? Private BBS? In '86 it would have been at about 300 baud, eh?

- Case

Case,

I can relate I remember going on a "cutting edge" engineering BBS with one of my high aptitude five nephews back in those days ---- "sheer torture"!

MJ

[Adamski]

Guys,

I remember, in the early 1980s, getting so frustrated with a 28 step computer based payroll program that I came close to throwing my computer into the swimming pool.

Going out on the internet (which didn't have a name back then because Al Gore was still a baby) was like taking a ride to the moon. It was totally unknown, unexplored and full of the unexpected. My phone line cost was 40 cents per minute so, obviously, I didn't while away my hours there.

[DaveLevenson]

Dave- which "'net" was that in 1986? FidoNET? ARPAnet? Private BBS? In '86 it would have been at about 300 baud, eh?- Case

It was called the Internet. The word internetwork (lower-case i) had been coined by the folks at BBN during the development what is now called Internet Protocol or IP -- developed as a way of interconnecting different types of networks. IP was being used by ARPA and by some commercial network providers, notably a company known as UUNET which provided a gateway between commercial IP networks and the ARPAnet. After ARPA stopped funding what had previously been called ARPAnet, the inter-connected networks which used IP gradually became known collectively as The Internet.

I was working at Bell Laboratories back then. AT&T operated its own IP-based network, and like many research organizations and college campuses, we were well-connected to the ARPAnet, and therefore, the Internet. (We probably had T-1 connections to the Internet but I never needed to know.) Dial-up access was not provided to the general public at any speed. There were no ISP's. If your company could afford it, you got high speed dedicated links to other well-connected backbone sites, and you carried their traffic while they carried yours. HTTP and the Worldwide Web had not yet been invented. The forums of that era were called newsgroups and collectively made up what was called netnews. The content was limited to text, no graphics. The ARPAnet acceptable use policy forbade advertising. There was no google (but there was gopher -- an early text-based search-engine that could sometimes help you find an online copy of some published research paper or technical memorandum). The PC was a diskette-based machine with no modem or other network access capability, and the MS-DOS operating system. If you were on the Internet, you probably had an account on a large multi-user system which ran the Unix operating system. (But your PC might have been used as a terminal-emulator to log in to your mainframe.)

The early Internet was a friendlier place than today's net. In the 1980's, you could get a domain-name free by being the first to ask for it. Nobody used firewalls or spam-filters because nobody on the network abused it. We were all neighbors in a very small community. Nobody used "screen names".