Oolite Saga on Amazon?

[ClymAngus]

It is a pity when these institutions of distribution just see the coinage. For free is an insidious form, when it comes to any story or idea.

Free (ie of no man made or restrict-able monetary value) is far from worthless or meaningless. Air is free, rain is free to speak is free. Just try without and you'll find how truly costly the lack of free can be.

I was once told "something is only worth what another person is willing to pay for it". I challenged the man to put a plastic bag over his head and decry the joy of "free" air.

Yes, give them free. For the best things in live are, so it seems to me.

[DaddyHoggy]

Rain, sadly is not free, try collecting *all* the rain that falls on your garden/house and storing in containers rather than letting it soak away and you'll discover that rain, belongs to the water company who have the supply rights over the land once it has fallen from the sky.

(My friend Eddie had to get special permission to collect all of the rain water (and in the end had to pay) from all of the barns he owned on his farm - because it turned out, it wasn't soaking through naturally into the river that flowed through his land (but which he had no extraction rights) he was stealing from Thames Water because, the rain you see belongs to them...)

[ClymAngus]

If they own it, (and I don't for one minute think they do) then they are liable for the damage it does, whilst they own it. Rich people can't have it all ways.

So Boris Johnson is incorrect to encourage rainwater harvesting? Cool Boris Johnson asking people to act illegally, I'll call up the papers.
http://www.rainwaterharvesting.co.uk/ra ... n-plan.php

I want to see a copy of that permit. Cochabamba, we are not.

P.S. I'm seeing a lot of anecdotal evidence, a friend of a friend kind of thing. No pdf hard and fast evidence. I think I know why. It's a good story. Someone owning 80% of your personal being tends to piss people off. Great story, put it into practice; riots, death all the bad bits of the bible.

Rain, sadly is not free, try collecting *all* the rain that falls on your garden/house and storing in containers rather than letting it soak away and you'll discover that rain, belongs to the water company who have the supply rights over the land once it has fallen from the sky.

(My friend Eddie had to get special permission to collect all of the rain water (and in the end had to pay) from all of the barns he owned on his farm - because it turned out, it wasn't soaking through naturally into the river that flowed through his land (but which he had no extraction rights) he was stealing from Thames Water because, the rain you see belongs to them...)

[Gimi]

Rain, sadly is not free, try collecting *all* the rain that falls on your garden/house and storing in containers rather than letting it soak away and you'll discover that rain, belongs to the water company who have the supply rights over the land once it has fallen from the sky.

(My friend Eddie had to get special permission to collect all of the rain water (and in the end had to pay) from all of the barns he owned on his farm - because it turned out, it wasn't soaking through naturally into the river that flowed through his land (but which he had no extraction rights) he was stealing from Thames Water because, the rain you see belongs to them...)

<Reads tha mail once more>

<And again>
This is so tragic it's funny, sorry. Utterly unbelievable. Wow. I think a Norwegian farmer would have started to look for the hidden cameras if this happened here. Then he would have told the water company to ¤%## @%&. The water supply situation in Norway is probably a bit better than in the UK, but still!

Edit: Thinking about it, I can understand why this is so. Potential water shortage on an island with 70mil people is no trivial thing, but this is a very alien concept to me. Quick question: does this mean that a golf course that collects rainwater to save on the water bill, actually have to pay for the water anyway.

Sorry for the derailing.

[DaddyHoggy]

@ClymAngus and Gimi.

I don't know about other organisations or situations - the London thing is interesting because if 6 million people all collected rainwater it could go two ways 1) less flash flooding 2) less water going into the Thames causing potential future water shortages.

Especially as Boris is also banning the tarmacking of gardens for driveways in London because he wants the water to soak into the ground because concrete/asphalt/paving slabs cause aforementioned flashing flooding...

Anyway, point of fact - my next door neighbour pays (slightly) more for his water bill than I because the previous owner modified the roof guttering and he has no drainage into a soakaway but into a storage tank. When we compared bills and he queried it with Thames Water, they told him it was because he was keeping the water.

[ClymAngus]

I'm sorry if I came across a touch brashly, not to mention a little rude. This was not my intention, my post was merely an outward expression of my inner incredulity.

This kind of thing makes me want to take Thames water to task. In all honesty I would like any further information you neighbour has on this.
I realise they have a monopoly but I'm sure he could contest this. I personally find this sort of thing outrageous.

Actually I'm going to contact Thames Water right now.

OK long e-mail sent, (don't worry it was measured, calm and I didn't mention any names) lets see where this goes.......

@ClymAngus and Gimi.

I don't know about other organisations or situations - the London thing is interesting because if 6 million people all collected rainwater it could go two ways 1) less flash flooding 2) less water going into the Thames causing potential future water shortages.

Especially as Boris is also banning the tarmacking of gardens for driveways in London because he wants the water to soak into the ground because concrete/asphalt/paving slabs cause aforementioned flashing flooding...

Anyway, point of fact - my next door neighbour pays (slightly) more for his water bill than I because the previous owner modified the roof guttering and he has no drainage into a soakaway but into a storage tank. When we compared bills and he queried it with Thames Water, they told him it was because he was keeping the water.

[DaddyHoggy]

Oh Lord...

Looking here: https://central.veoliawater.co.uk/my-waste-water.aspx (although it's not my area) it would seem my neighbour, if he was on a meter and could prove Water Out was 10% less than Water In, would actually be entitled to discount compared to me.

So, despite what he was told when he rang all those years ago, I have no idea why he's paying more than me (identical houses - save ours is end terrace and his is not) - indeed - it would seem (if his storage/soakaway actually works) he should definitely be paying less than me: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theoneshow/2 ... y-on.shtml

[ClymAngus]

Oh Lord...

Looking here: https://central.veoliawater.co.uk/my-waste-water.aspx (although it's not my area) it would seem my neighbour, if he was on a meter and could prove Water Out was 10% less than Water In, would actually be entitled to discount compared to me.

So, despite what he was told when he rang all those years ago, I have no idea why he's paying more than me (identical houses - save ours is end terrace and his is not) - indeed - it would seem (if his storage/soakaway actually works) he should definitely be paying less than me: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theoneshow/2 ... y-on.shtml

Sorry for being anally retentive and challenging you on this point (a horrible digression and a blatant threadjack plain and simple) but it's water, 70 to 80% of what makes the wonderful thing called Clym, Clym (And DaddyHoggy, DaddyHoggy for that matter) so you can see my earnest desire for fiscal clarification.......

Enough, of this joy. Drew! Yes! Post away, go at the task with gusto in the safe knowledge that the wider community will not lift a finger against your efforts!

(it's not called the friendliest forum this side of Riedquat, for nothing)

[drew]

Love the way we can go from the viable provision of ebooks on a website to the appropriateness of water ownership being retained by a monopolistic supply company in a single thread.

Bravo!

Cheers,

Drew.

[ClymAngus]

sorry!

[Cmdr James]

Enough, of this joy. Drew! Yes! Post away, go at the task with gusto in the safe knowledge that the wider community will not lift a finger against your efforts!

To be fair, CommonSenseOTB did have a strong objection, and I dont think that should be discarded out of hand, he has a point and deserves to be listened to.

Im not sure anyone can honestly speak for "the community". It seems that only one of the replies was strongly against, and while I am not against I can see his argument. On the other hand it seems most people are neutral or positive, and it will most likely bring enjoyment to a significant number of people.

You need to take a view on what you think is right and go with that. You know for sure that some people in the community object, but life is ever so

[ClymAngus]

You know in all the kerfuffle I'd completely missed it. I shall reread.

Isn't Gimi was sorting this, Drew posts it Gimi informs Amazon that this is available online for free. Amazon zero the price.

[Gimi]

You know in all the kerfuffle I'd completely missed it. I shall reread.

Isn't Gimi was sorting this, Drew posts it Gimi informs Amazon that this is available online for free. Amazon zero the price.

I think Drew was calling for more than one person to inform Amazon, just to give it more weight.

[Capt. Murphy]

To be fair, CommonSenseOTB did have a strong objection, and I don't think that should be discarded out of hand, he has a point and deserves to be listened to.

Indeed, but then as Disembodied pointed out other Oolite/Elite derived stuff is on sale with no problem. If CSOTB wants to berate Giles for making a little cash from his models then.....

Re the legality of selling Oolite in general see https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.ph ... 15#p131687

And as Drew's intentions are entirely honourable, and Amazon will price match the £0.00 cost from other sites I see no problem. We may even see some new players via this route.

[snork]

As for the comments on how people are finding my Oolite stories. Here are some hard stats:

Only 4% come from Oolite.org
Only 2.5% come from this forum
25% Google searches for "ebook space opera" "sci fi series free ebook"
The remaining 68.5 percent come from internet searches, sci-fi websites, fanfiction sites, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, Sony etc etc. (where they are also free)
...but not Amazon, of course. Thus 60%-90% of my potential readership can't see my books.

Interesting, I would not have thought that so many come directly from googling.
To me google is only means to find ASAP another place for further search - one of them fanfiction sites in this case.

Anyways, good luck with it - as I am no customer / not registered with Amazon, I am not able to tell them about the "offered elsewhere for free". (or am I ?)

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Oh Lord...

Looking here: https://central.veoliawater.co.uk/my-waste-water.aspx (although it's not my area) it would seem my neighbour, if he was on a meter and could prove Water Out was 10% less than Water In, would actually be entitled to discount compared to me.

So, despite what he was told when he rang all those years ago, I have no idea why he's paying more than me (identical houses - save ours is end terrace and his is not) - indeed - it would seem (if his storage/soakaway actually works) he should definitely be paying less than me: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theoneshow/2 ... y-on.shtml

Hm, that makes me think it might roughly be the same as water regulations over here : Fresh water is rather cheap, but waste water fees are high - and calculated from the fresh-water-consumption.
So, if this year I used 150 m³ of fresh water, no matter if I used 50% to water my garden I have to pay waste water fee for the whole 150 m³.
Now if I only used 75m³ of freshwater, but also collect 75m³ of rain, then the waterworks are assuming that this collected rainwater is also going to become waste water, and they want the fees for that.

So it would be that they do not want money for collecting the rain, but for disposal of that rain through the waste water systems.