newname

Why Hottips Changed Names ---

It's really very simple --- I had been contacted a number of times by people that were interested in buying the domain name:

HOTTIPS.COM

I never took these calls seriously. One was from a woman writing a book about the stock market. Another was from a horse racing site. But E-Data was talking serious money. As soon as it looked as if the deal would work, I registered 'Hottips.Org' so I could keep the same prefix. Hottips had been non-profit for some time. By using the system, for the Southern California EAS Listserver it more than qualified me for the .ORG suffix.

What was especially different about this event was that I was scheduled to go into the hospital for surgery on a Tuesday, and E-Data wanted to close the deal before the operation. They sent Scott Hirsch, their Vice President of Sales and Marketing, to Los Angeles to get my signature. After a long plane trip and then a taxi ride, he arrived just as the surgery was starting. I'd been sedated, the I.V. was in, and the nurse was waiting with the anesthetic as I signed the registration papers. I don't remember that much about it, but if Scott had arrived 5 minutes later. he would have had to wait until probably Friday for me to know enough about what I was doing.

The question everyone asks is: 'How much did you get for the domain name ? I could have held out for more, but I felt comfortable with our agreement. And I still got to keep HOTTIPS.ORG.

So I'm not complaining...

It was about time for the Hottips BBS to make a profit again. The system has gone from 5 phone lines down to 1. It now takes 3-4 calls a day as opposed to 250+ in 1994. As a business, Hottips has lost money the last four years...