The list formerly know as B*rn Org*niz*d

In May of 2000 I started an e-mail list at YahooGroups, called (almost) "B*rn Org*niz*d". It was an active list, with ideas, tips, thoughts and support for optimizing daily activities.

The tag-line was "Just the tips, Ma'am."

I really liked it. We had over a thousand subscribers. It was a friendly list, yet not chatty. We stayed on-topic. Introductions were not necessary or encouraged. While open to all, the recipes were kosher. There were no ads.

In the Spring of 2002, I received a strident e-mail announcing I was infringing on the rights of the trademark holder of the name of my group, and to cease and desist using that name. I did some research, and it turned out that I had started my list one month before her application. I never had a chance to tell her that, though.

She owned an organizing business with the name. Had she simply sent me a friendly e-mail, I would have arranged to change the name of our group. After all, it was just an e-mail group. A lark for me; it was her livelihood.

However, before I could respond to her e-mail, before I could archive the years of posts and files, before I could notify the group's subscribers (or download their e-mail addresses), the site was taken off-line by YahooGroups.

I didn't protest. It was only a hobby for me. She invested in the name. Even though I had it first, it mattered to her in a way that it couldn't have to me. It would have been so much nicer, however, to be allowed to change the name of the group. Instead, it was destroyed.

A few of the frequent posters who knew me in "real life" sent me copies they had saved of their favorite posts. The rest is gone.

I learned something from this experience. This time around, I bought the domain "JugglingFrogs.com" and did a trademark search. I hereby declare that I intend to use the JugglingFrogs trademark. So there.

Now I've started this blog, with a very similar theme, seven years later. In addition to the current content of this blog, I hope to add occasional posts that I wrote for the "B*rn Org*niz*d" YahooGroup. (I don't have access to the other authors of posts, so I'll only post content I've authored.)

I plan to tag these as "BO archive" posts.