wrote in message
oups.com...
Registration is FREE. I made the same mistake

Tom's a good guy


Thanks. I see that now. I kept running into requests for $12.95 and it
says nothing about registration being free. My mistake.

I do think the site, on a superficial reading, gives the impression that
money is the main thing Tom's after, but in reflection it's occurred to me
that we, "the great Internet public", have been somewhat bombarded for so
long with web sites that claim free access to something, only to find out
post registration that credit cards have been charged, mail boxes spammed
and a thousand and one other scams tried on.

I suspect that in all of us there is a natural tendency to generalise (as
opposed to taking each site on it's merits) having been stung by all the
tricks around these days.

I think for the glancing browsers, Tom should consider making it a little
more obvious that most of his stuff is free, and he won't spam the ass off
you or in general, do you any harm or harassment.

It's rare these days to get something for free on the Internet (really free)
and even less rare to come across an individual like Tom. It may just be a
site design issue after all, and believe me, if I were more financially
able, I would send the (A$27.00) he's asking for "The Barr Report" because
as he states: there is so much guff in overpriced printed Aquaria
publications that contain masses of advertising (I don't read printed stuff
any more because of the advertising outweighing the actual content pages),
and for less than the price of a yearly subscription to one of these real
magazines, in which you are paying for advertising, you can get Tom's
e-zine, ad free.

I'm not necessarily having a go at you or Tom about any of this. I am just
amazed at how I personally slipped into suspicion, made a generalised and
regrettable post a day later, to only realise now what a silly thing it was
to do, and how presumtious one can become so easily.

Every one makes mistakes. Every one feels vulnerable and every one has a
right to free thought and speech.

Don't worry too much about the oversight. I'm sure yourself and myself
aren't the only ones that see that page and think it's going to cost, but
the bottom line is that the value of "free" on Tom's site, is actually free,
except for the download cost, and you have the conscious choice whether to
sign up or not - there is no hidden agenda I can see other than a true
altruistic desire to help people with their aquariums.

So, have we seen the pics of the fantastic CO2 Reactor yet? I am going to
build one in a couple of weeks when I get a small power head. It looks like
the best design I've seen around and best of all as Tom states, it's self
regulating, which is real bonus with over productive or inefficient yeast
based systems.

Oz

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My Aquatic web Blog is at http://members.optusnet.com.au/ivan.smith