1.	I got email from Steve Jurvetson and Tim O'Reilly and many others urging me not to change the form of presentation of DaveNet. I appreciate these comments, because it implies that someone is reading what I'm writing. But email delivery of newletters is a very small part of what we do. And in the future, while there will be a way to receive my writing via email, if you just read my words in email, with no context, it will not make any sense at all.
2.	I feel like we've already gotten to the disconnection point, that's why you see the change now. The comments I receive back from DaveNets, when I receive them, usually are missing the context of the piece. Private conversations I have with DaveNet subscribers, who diligently read them, confirm this. Our work in web applications surprises them. "Write about it in DaveNet!" they say. But I have I have.
3.	Further, when a great story comes along that we have participated in, like the one developing with SOAP and NGWS, my point of view, that of a small but powerful independent developer, does not get included in the story. Bill Joy, Sun's chief technologist, always does, even though he hasn't shipped any software (that I know of) in twenty years. He pisses on our work. Says it's about Microsoft when it's not. So I'm taking a tactic from Joy's playbook. If I want your respect, I think I have to do two things. First, I must become more scarce. There's not much respect for someone who is so available. And second, I must make you come to me, on the Web, where the story is unfolding, on a daily basis. You have to feel a need for your fix, and make an investment in getting it.
4.	Now I know I will lose a few readers. That's the way it goes. On a normal day I lose a few, and gain a few. Further, and this is a key point, it is not my goal to have the most readers. My goal is to create a new environment where small developers have a chance to produce software that millions of people use, without interference from large companies or the US government. I want to be one of those developers.
5.	I've been playing it wrong. I've been acting as if I want a lot of readers. My new tactic is to tell a great story using the medium that I love and understand, and if I gain a great audience so much the better. (I already have a great audience, btw.) If my users, people who write for the Web, gain larger audiences, that's OK too. And if people who use other people's software gain larger audiences, guess what, I like that too. (But I don't want it all to come from one developer.)
6.	My investment is in my medium, not in my name. "Ask not what the Internet can do for you, ask what you can do for the Internet." It seems that some of my readers don't agree. Well, if it's too much trouble to visit my site, we're not singing the same tune. For six years I've pumped bits into your email box. That's a long long time. Now it's time for you to do something good for the Internet.
7.	Read, think, evaluate, open your mind, and come to the Web, where it's all happening. I don't just want your eyeballs, I want your minds. I'm willing to give up a few readers to get that.