So here's something that cracked me up today.

I've been posting short clips from my new Tech History video on TikTok. The first episode is about the old Bulletin Board Systems (BBSes) that we used to run back before the Internet took over.

I was looking through my TikTok analytics, and most of the videos had pretty normal numbers. One had 43 views and 2 likes. Another had 53 views and 1 like. Nothing spectacular.

Then I noticed one video had 30 views and 94 likes. Wait a minute. How the hell do you get 94 likes from 30 views? That's a 313% like-to-view ratio! So I opened the actual TikTok page to see what was going on. Sure enough, 94 likes. And then I noticed what was on the screen.

"THE DUNGEON"

You see, back in my BBS days, I ran a bulletin board out of my bedroom, and I called it The Dungeon. And suddenly it occurred to me...

I wonder how many people saw "The Dungeon" while scrolling through TikTok, thought they were about to see something kinky, hit the Like button, and then discovered it was just some computer nerd talking about dial-up modems in the early '90s.

I was laughing so hard I had to tell ChatGPT about it. ChatGPT suggested that maybe I've been marketing to the wrong audience all these years. Forget teaching Microsoft Access. Apparently, I should be making videos like:

"Master and Slave Relationships in Microsoft Access"
"Learn How to Dominate Your Subforms"
"Getting Your Relationships Under Control"
"How to Handle Multiple Partners in a Many-to-Many Relationship"

And, of course, my personal favorite:

"Binding, Unbound Controls, and Submitting Your Forms"

I'm starting to think I've stumbled onto an entirely new marketing strategy.

Twenty years of teaching databases, and all I needed was a dungeon.

Live long and prosper, my friends. And remember, always practice safe database relationships.

RR