LowComDom announces Mo Automation for Da Joke List

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 24, 1996 - Alviso California

Spring is on its way and our header bloomed! LowComDom Performances today announced it was moving management of Da Joke List to Majordomo, a Unix based list management system.

"The Gag-O-Matic Joke Server was also trying to manage the list," said Biff Pondwater, President and Founder of LowComDom. "Gag-O-Matic did a fine job until a week ago when the list size bloomed."

LowComDom attributes the list's popularity with its ad campaign on Radionet, a talk show dedicated to the Internet and multimedia issues. "Our Geek Moment and LowComDom Online Dictionary ads started hauling people in," said Pondwater. "But when we got a link from the Radionet home page to LowComDom's page -- BOOM! Subscriptions started coming in faster than we could handle."

"One morning I went to work, and Gag-O-Matic said 'IT'S TOO BIG!' referring to the size of the list," said Fred Barling, LowComDom's Vice President in Charge of Research & Silliness. "I thought, 'COOL! How many times in my life is anyone going to say that to me?' I also knew we had a big problem; some of our subscribers weren't getting jokes. Damn it, we take that seriously around here!"

Barling's Research & Silliness Staff held an offsite meeting at the local Taco Bell and decided Gag-O-Matic needed a helping hand. Majordomo is a long-term solution that will be able to handle thousands of names. The migration plan was worked out over burritos with no onions. The total cost of the meeting was $8.63 for a staff of 18.

"Of course, the current subscribers will NOT need to re-subscribe," said Pondwater. "We insisted on using a Plug & Giggle Interface to migrate the list from Gag-O-Matic to Majordomo. We feel this is the best answer for our subscribers."

Da Joke List's service will be changing. Under Gag-O-Matic, two lists were managed, Basic and Premium. Now only Premium Level service will be offered. "Almost everyone was joining at the Premium level," said Barling. "We figure a couple extra jokes a day won't flood anyone to death, they can always kill the excess."

BACKGROUND

LowComDom was founded in 1985 by Pondwater who found a bag of money behind a restaurant in San Francisco's "Little Italy" and used the money to stage his first performance. The rightful owners of the money sued Pondwater and settled out of court, agreeing to accept two of Pondwater's fingers in exchange for the cash. Pondwater went on to become a genius of Octal Mathematics. Barling joined LowComDom in September 1995 when the company acquired Da Joke List from him. During the remainder of 1995, Da Joke List was upgraded to add better automation and stability.

Press Contacts

Biff Pondwater, Founder and President, biff@lowcomdom.com;
Fred Barling Vice-President in Charge of Research and Silliness, burritos@lowcomdom.com
LowComDom's Home Page is at http://www.lowcomdom.com
Radionet's Home Page is at http://www.radionet.com

LowComDom, Da Joke List, & Gag-O-Matic are trademarks of LowComDom Performances. Unix is a trademark of someone else, but we forgot who.

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