Ok, so the economy has been doing bad. We can go on for hours on the causes, the culprits and the results of many of the actions taken. One action trying to be done will automatically prevent new jobs, destroy thousands of current ones and cause any type of recovery we see now to go out the window. It's a law that would force you to pay sales tax on say anime figures you buy outside your own state.
I'm talking about the tired case of Quill vs. North Dakota, aka the e-commerce tax, or the "amazon tax." Looks as if two moronic politicians, Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) and Representative Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.) want to try to unconstitutionally break a Supreme Court ruling that clearly states that you only pay sales tax if the business you purchase from is in the state you reside. I've already made my point clear and as of today, the great editors and staff at BusinessWeek.com put my comment on the front page for today.
Many Internet businesses have grown despite what the economy has thrown at them. My anime business has grown steadily as well despite me starting it in late 2006 and throughout this whole recession, my customer service has been creating a thriving company that hopefully soon I can create jobs with. New York already broke the laws of the land by having it where you have to pay the already inflated New York sales tax even if you don't live in NY!!
Because many rich scammers out there can't run their hedge funds anymore, the states are strapping for cash they once had from these legal Ponzi Schemes and that means your anime items, not just from me, but from every anime business or all products from all e-commerce businesses will cost more for you. Instead of doing the right thing, many states want to steal money from the average citizen by imposing this tax. Granted a very small universal tax should be a solution to accommodate the state's need and ours but...we all know that won't happen either because of states like New York who can't balance their budget even in an utopian society.
I know I'm sounding much like Code Geass's Lelouche but fighting this is a must for anyone who wants to see the economy continue to recover from such idiotic actions. Call your state representative or aid ebay.com and overstock.com in their fight against this. You can also add to the discussion on BusinessWeek.com along with me. Despite what naysayers think, many e-commerce sites, including my own already pay enough taxes to our state government. I cringe every time I have to impose the Suffolk County 8.625% sales tax on anime figures bought by my fellow New Yorkers. An besides, if my company grows and I add more employees, income tax comes into play and that's where the money should come from! Its a crime to begin with and there is no way this crime should be allowed to expand.
Last Tuesday me, along with a select few got the honor to visit the BusinessWeek headquarters in NYC. We were nominated as BusinessWeek's top readers of 2008 and the purpose of the meeting was to go over what BW and the BusinessWeek.com site should improve on and try to portray in this coming year. At the top floor of the McGraw-Hill building we were greeted to a wonderful and very talkative cocktail party and then a very tasty dinner and dessert.
The view from the 50th floor (in dire need of a better camera ^^;)
The whole set up was thanks to BusinessWeek's Editor-in-Chief, John Byrne, and his top editors of whom we got to meet with. It was wonderful to see such a large media company take the time and effort to reach out to their readers like this. John and the staff are all very down-to-earth and a pleasure to speak wit. In no way, shape or form did we feel belittled by them being there. (Can't say the same about my p/t job's boss though.) One of the obvious truths we are seeing in public media is that the media is being diluted by the numerous blogs and of course the dwindling newspaper sales thanks to the good old internet.
The one of the biggest topics we talked about though was the workings of different comment systems on the website and on sites in general. Currently, BW has a more welcoming commenting system than say engadget.com or youtube. For the most part you can state your opinion logically like an educated adult and not get too much slack. The balance of whether to have comments or not is always a big choice for a webmaster. There are times that garbage and childish comments by "trolls" can ruin the image of a story or site, yet the user ingagement make the site come alive so you do need it to some degree. One good example just from here on CAS is the fact that I had to make it so members only can post on the "Otaku Blurbs". This was after a troll or two got a hold of the feature.
So, what comment system would be good for both here or on a site on say, BusinessWeek?
A quick shot us at the table
The other major topic that came up has been the current buzz on the web for the past year now. I'm talking of course about Twitter. In the coming months, BW will be utilizing both the comment system and Twitter together in different ways, most likely with use of # hashmarks to better categorize the events in business and throughout their site. Finding a use for Twitter outside of its obvious social fad has been the main question for many in both social and business circles. I mentioned a bit of a site I just started working with, beamagpie.com in which you can approve tweets to broadcast on your account and the more followers you have..the more you can get payed. Not certain on how well it'll work and I'll assume more like it will be down the road. Granted of course, my goal is to never come off as money grubbing advertiser on Twitter. Such actions by any person there will prevent any meaningful followship and might cause many of the issues that plague Facebook for the site as a whole.
I'll ask you, the readers of CAS... what do you find useful about Twitter? For me right now, it drives traffic to my site...and is a great place to vent with listeners.
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After a 4+ hour talk we all parted our ways and we even got some great parting gifts as well like a shirt, BusinessWeek bag, flash memory card and flashlight. Another little tidbit is that this might be the first of many meetings with a potential creation of the Business Week Readers Advisory Panel.
Part of our parting gifts, a BW flash memory card
Here's the awesome BW we got
To everyone I met there at the meeting, I had a great time and it was an honor to meet you all, both the wonderful readers and the BW staff ^_^ Sorry I didn't mention any names, didn't want to single anyone out at all.
Here's to a great 2009 and hopefully more insightful meetings like this one.
Looks like I became one of Business Week's Top Readers of 2008 (not yet in pic above). Based on the list here, I'm actually in the top 12 ^^. Been in talks with the Business Week editors, going to be at a party held by them on March 10th in NYC. Much more to come on this. Congrats to Hugo who won the top spot and to all the other readers on Business Week.
Just letting you guys know that you have a fellow otaku trying to get the word out about anime, video games and all the Japanese stuff we love.
