The end for IrelandOffline

Moriarty

Hi everyone.

I've never been one for beating around the bush, so this will be short and sweet. The committee have decided that now is the time to wind down IrelandOffline. Our goals have been more or less met. Eircom have shown themselves to be the magnanimous incumbent that we always knew they could be - the rascals - by offering free bandwidth upgrades for all. ComReg have demonstrated beyond all doubt their dedication to the Irish internet user and should be applauded for their stedfast work which brought them above and beyond the call in helping every person connect to the internet. The Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources have been instrumental in guiding ComReg in the necessary areas and also deserve praise for their firm hand on the tiller of Broadband Ireland.

The committee feel confident that Ireland will be well served by this group of fine institutions, working in partnership to create the E-Hub of Europe.


In closing, we would like to thank all of our membership for their hard work over the years. It's been an intresting ride. So long, and thanks for all the fish.

Aidan Whyte,
on behalf of the IrelandOffline Committee.

oscarBravo

/oscarBravo is first to call April Fools!!

is_that_so

Nice one, lashings of credible "pipe dreams"

eth0_

I call shenannigans!

ElNino

You posted that 21 minutes early

damien

Website Statement

cgarvey

Moriarty wrote:

In closing, we would like to thank all of our membership for their hard work over the years. It's been an intresting ride. So long, and thanks for all the fish.

I must say, I was very disappointed when I was told to update the website (which I've done), especially with all the activity of late.. but then I guess there's only so much a bunch of people can do.

Thank all the committee for the fish, though, as they truely did an awesome job this past few months, and BB is now a frequent topic in all media (where as it was very rarely covered even last summer). It was a pleasure to give the little bit I did, thanks to you all.

.cg

Dizzyblabla

aahhh nooo! I wanted to be the first!!

fred_fish

Well what more can Ireland Offline possibly do?

Didn't Mr McRedmond promise everybody broadband?
I believe his words were "anybody can have broadband
now if they want it" and who am I too doubt such a
statement and haven't they started delivering on that promise?

I think Ireland Offline have made the only sensible decision
and have left telecommunications to the market to decide.
Deregulation was such a godsend for competition. Don't we
now have 49 telecommunications providers all vying for your business?
Hasnt the bumbling the loop business been a resounding success?

Thats lots of competition, I look forward to regular price
increses in line rental so that the 49 companies can invest in
their networks and do what regulation on its own could not have
achieved. YES LET THE FREE MARKET decide.

The only thing left in for the government to invest in "market
and demand stimulation" as obviously the consumers here don't
really want broadband and we in the PR community like the business.

Lastly all you damn culchess should just accept your lot, arent you culchees
ffs. Otherwise you'd all have good jobs and live in Dublin...We nice people from Dublin don't see why we should subsidise your choices to live in the godforsaken sticks (like Rathmines and Terenure). Damn places smell like
an old sock. I'll never understand why people live in such squalor.

Yes the markets have spoken, you're worthless now go crawl under a rock...

damien

I emailed the main stakeholders a copy of our statement today, just to keep them in the loop. So far I've heard nothing back from Isolde, David or Noel.

scojones

April fools, ha ha. Good one (:

mike65

I have a picture of McRedmond doing a little dance as he read the opening post then slowing d-o-w-n to halting stumble as the calender on the wall caught his eye.

Mike.

vinnyfitz

It's April 2nd and the site message is still up!
Is it true so? Is it all really sorted?

andrew163

mike65 wrote:

I have a picture of McRedmond doing a little dance as he read the opening post then slowing d-o-w-n to halting stumble as the calender on the wall caught his eye.

Mike.

lmfao

And it's only been april 2nd for 2 hours..give them a chance (I hope...oh gawd how I hope :eek: )

Creamy Goodness

well if it is an april fools joke, fair play to them, they kept it going.

if not, there's not much to say but if it wasn't for you guys we'd probably be going backwards instead of forwards. we'd probably be going back to tin cans tied together with a piece of twine as are intense network of telecoms

SeaSide

Bad mistake guys.

Not the kind of thing to do if you want to be taken seriously.

zenith

SeaSide wrote:

Bad mistake guys.

Not the kind of thing to do if you want to be taken seriously.

I think its black propaganda value outweighs any potential downside from the too-serious. Remember, Swift was a satirist.

It's called guerilla marketing, I think.

damien

Now we have to find our webmaster to change it back.

TCP/IP

If this was an april fools joke it was a very poor marketing plow and it gives the Impression that Ireland Offline is not a professional group. People if you are intent in been taken serious by corporations and the media you should really rethink you ideas.

zod

TCP/IP wrote:

If this was an april fools joke it was a very poor marketing plow and it gives the Impression that Ireland Offline is not a professional group. People if you are intent in been taken serious by corporations and the media you should really rethink you ideas.

Yeah very amateurish like Google http://www.google.com/googlegulp/index.html

TCP/IP

I have no problem with an April fools but you dont see Google saying they are closing down do you.

zod

TCP/IP wrote:

I have no problem with an April fools but you dont see Google saying they are closing down do you.

But they did disparage their whole search/page ranking system - their number one product : http://www.google.com/technology/pigeonrank.html

quite funny really - For me the Ireland Offline april fool was dripping with sarcasm and was a not so subtle dig at the Eircon/Comwreck etc, however I do take your point - crying wolf too many times maybe?

damien

TCP/IP wrote:

If this was an april fools joke it was a very poor marketing plow and it gives the Impression that Ireland Offline is not a professional group. People if you are intent in been taken serious by corporations and the media you should really rethink you ideas.

Call me arrogant (and I am) but when it comes to IrelandOffline being taken seriously a search of the past month in this forum will tell you how the press view us. At one stage we were doing an average of 2 interviews a day. The press respects us quite a lot and holds us in high regard. They come to us now, not the other way around.

As for corporations: The fact that the directors of the largest telecoms companies in Ireland email us back and forth on a regular basis shows they respect us. The fact that David McRedmond will now go on on-air interviews with us shows how seriously eircom take us. The fact that we can ring the DCMNR and ComReg and ask for a meeting and get them, shows the regard those groups hold for us.

If we were to take ourselves too seriously I don't think we'd have come as far as we have in such a short time.

TCP/IP

I agree your work is sterling but if you want to move further along as a professional interest group you should take note of what people say

Paddy20

Yeah, do not even dream of ever winding up/or down IrelandOffline WITHOUT first consulting moi

P.

Mountjoy Mugger

damien.m wrote:

Call me arrogant (and I am) ...


If we were to take ourselves too seriously I don't think we'd have come as far as we have in such a short time.

So whose bright idea was it to change the home page of IOFFL?

I'm a member since day one and with all due respect I never expected to see bullsh*t like that being posted and being left there.

brettmirl

damien.m wrote:

The press respects us quite a lot and holds us in high regard.

Of course we do Damo!

zoro

Mountjoy Mugger wrote:

So whose bright idea was it to change the home page of IOFFL?

I'm a member since day one and with all due respect I never expected to see bullsh*t like that being posted and being left there.

Ah shut up and look at the funny side of things...