At 5/3/2001 07:58 PM (Thursday), markus.soell@... wrote:

>[much else snipped]
>Why should Firebird not want some publicity if it can get it for free
>(by simply having the website in place)?

This is a very common misconception about the web. Just having a web site
gains you absolutely zero in publicity. It isn't even as much publicity as
you would get by having an advertisement in the telephone company's "yellow
pages". It is much more like putting a sign out in front of your home.

Publicity is what happens once the product is promoted and then only if you
are effective in the promotion or just lucky. Publicity is when other
people who are not on the Firebird team start talking about Firebird, such
as magazines or newsletters or word of mouth between technical
types. Publicity will not happen just because the web site exists (except
by accident), no matter how good the site is. it can also happen very
effectively WITHOUT a Firebird "marketing" web site.