From who's online: I've just noticed that in forum "who's online" listings, I, Brian gets double his share. I figure that translates into double the sig links, double the post count, double the rep points... you get the picture. I'm thinking of starting again as I, Minstrel. I do think this is marketing genius -- why didn't I think of this before? Mind you, I, Brian does have one flaw -- geography. Evidently realizing that Yorkshire isn't known for being the hub of the intellectual universe, I, Brian decided to move. Possibly a good decision. But then he moved to... Scotland?
Brian's a marketing genius alright, but that's not the reason (or at least, not the primary reason)...
What's not the reason? Or... not the primary reason for what? (this randfish has a lean and hungry look... let me have men about me who are fat...)
Oi! So it's fat men that are needed up there in Ottawa is it? Well, we Yanks can supply. The I, Brian name - that's not the reason... Ask Brian if he can help rankings at Yahoo! & MSN; then you'll find out why he's a marketing genius. Oh, and ask in private, please.
Well, possibly the book (from the 60s? Isaac Asimov) but he was I, Brian long before that movie came out.
It's not that it's "wrong" per se. What's puzzling is that, unlike most of the people who live there who do so because they were born there and haven't been able to find their way out, I, Brian CHOSE to live there.
The heart of Hull's industrial estates wasn't pretty, so the quiet hills of Scotland are quite a boon after that. The username actually follows "I, Claudius", the book by robert Graves about a somewhat clumsy and awkward man who happens to stumble into a world above his head. I can relate to that. I actually used to call myself "Brian the Messiah", but religious fundamentalists apparently haven't heard of Monty Python... Anyway, as for marketing genuis - it has to be said that opening up a site to give away free webmaster tools on the scale that Shaun did blows me away. It markets itself, which is the best genius. Even more so when the webmasters using them happily pay for the servers to run them from. I have to admit I really kicked myself for not contributing to the server fund before it closed, but as soon as Shaun opens a next appeal, I intend to be one of the first to make a sizable donation. Looking at another thread, it might be ear defenders for visiting Summer's place. What he's done here is pretty impressive - and whether intended or not, *that's* marketing genius.