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From: mdavis@pro-sol.cts.com (Morgan Davis)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: Multiple newsgroups
Message-ID: <4872@crash.cts.com>
Date: 8 Oct 90 19:16:08 GMT
Sender: root@crash.cts.com
Lines: 66

Recently, a suggestion was made to create a comp.sys.apple.iigs group.
If you can believe it, the same suggestion was made in 1983-84 about creating
an "Info-Apple-IIe" group since readers perceived some great rift between
Apple II+ and Apple IIe users.  You know, those new IIe owners really stirred
everything up, what with their lowercase keyboards, 80 column displays, and
128K RAM machines!  This suggestion was made by jealous II+ users, no less.

Yet, today, there is quite a disproportionate number of II+ to IIe/IIc/IIGS
subscribers here.  There aren't many II+ -only users left.  Most who didn't
ride the wave of technology or weren't interested in it simply unsubscribed.
And the group lived on to discuss today's Apple II technology.  Healthy.

I also read comp.sys.mac.misc (the catch-all groups for all miscellaneous
discussion about *all* Macintosh models).  I never see this "we need to
create a comp.sys.mac.plus group and a comp.sys.mac.iifx group" stuff.
Yet, those machines are just as diverse or more as the Apple II+ and IIGS.
Why is it that they can maintain peaceful harmony there?

(They did, however, have the foresight to create a technical group called
"comp.sys.mac.programmer" after which we may want to follow.  I thought it
an excellent idea since it pulled the developer community away from
those not interested in software development.)

A lack of cohesiveness and cooperation is an indicator of many other problems
with this group.  I have observed that many members of this group are:

o       Very insecure about the computer they own.  They find themselves
        unable to keep up with new advancements (mentally or financially).
        So they mire themselves where they stand, defend their
        machine as the end-all-be-all, and proclaim anything else as
        "the enemy".

o       So bored that they must invent ways to bitch and whine to help
        pass the time.  They ought to spend as must time doing something
        constructive with their machine.  Or, is the Apple II series only
        capable as a terminal from which to expouse the kind of lunacy
        we've had to endure recently?  Yes, that's a dare.

o       No longer interested in posting useful information.

o       Scaring off those who have legitimate questions for fear that
        they will be twisted into a Mac vs. Apple II debates and may
        never get answered.

o       Not the same folks who participated in interesting, useful,
        helpful, and lucid discussions five years ago.

o       Sending good people away, and making it difficult for the
        remaining few to want to stick around.  I think this is
        the second time that Matt Deatherage has bowed out to let
        the unenlightened heathens carry on their wrath.

Personally, I don't see an end in sight until a lot of Apple II users
realize that being rigid in their loyalty to the Apple II series is no
longer healthy, nor admirable.  Today, it is just plain stupid.  Imagine
hordes of C-64 users clutching their plastic boxes to their chests,
joysticks dangling, and lamenting the unjustice that has befallen them.
That's what many of you look like in phosphor.  It is getting old.

It is time to open eyes, close mouth, and just listen for a while.

--Morgan Davis

UUCP: crash!pro-sol!mdavis           AOL, BIX: mdavis  
ARPA: crash!pro-sol!mdavis@nosc.mil  GEnie:    m.davis42
INET: mdavis@pro-sol.cts.com         ProLine:  mdavis@pro-sol