Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!haven!wam!dmb From: dmb@wam.umd.edu (David M. Baggett) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: The Quick ST II Challenge vs. Usenet? Message-ID: <1990Oct22.190053.21874@wam.umd.edu> Date: 22 Oct 90 19:00:53 GMT References: Sender: usenet@wam.umd.edu (USENET Posting) Reply-To: dmb%wam.umd.edu@uunet.uu.net (David M. Baggett) Organization: University of Maryland at College Park Lines: 79 [At the risk of beating a dead horse...] archbold@bluemoon.uucp (Archie Jaszcz) writes: > Ok, John and others who agree with him on bashing Darek Michocka: >For one thing, there are lotsa people who'd like to have his Quick ST II >and I don't appreciate such strong developer bashing as you try to pass >onto us. The real issue (as far as I can tell) is not with Darek's posting style but rather with his supposed use of Usenet as an advertising vehicle. The fact is that Usenet has always (in spirit, at least) been intended for NON-PROFIT purposes, to the extent that commercial advertising is severely FROWNED UPON. In fact, I believe most Usenet veterans would say agree that _commercial_ sale notices are absolutely PROHIBITED. (Commercial, that is, versus personal for-sale notices, like cars for sale, etc. Darek is "allowed" to post a message telling everyone his car is for sale, but he is not "allowed" to post a message telling everyone his new product QuickProgramProver is available for sale.) As I see it, the tricky parts are: 1) Who's going to stop him from doing something "not allowed"? 2) Who decides what is a "commercial advertisement" vs. a "general interest announcement"? Proabably what it comes down to is that the people who really don't like the product announcements will harrass him until he stops posting them. (Personally, I don't care either way, as long as none of the for sale messages make it into comp.sys.atari.st.tech!) :-) I would definitely NOT call this "developer bashing". There are more "developers" on this net than it sounds like you think. I'm sure it is NOT the case that Darek is one of a handful of people who read this group who write shareware and/or commercial software. You make it sound like these "developers" are a precious resource that we must cherish and fawn over so we get the benefit of their Infinite Wisdom. I think a more accurate portayal might be, "There are lots of people who read this group who know lots of stuff about the ST." Period. > I think that Darek Michocka has done alot for this ST world and >he deserves a little respect in that light. This strikes me as wholly irrelevant. Fame is no excuse for violating protocol, if you ask me. (As I said, I make no judgement as to whether he has or not.) > So, please, if you don't like Quick ST II or Darek, speak for >yourself and let a good developer do his work. I think you're turning >developers away by such posts, and we do need them you know... If "his work" involves posting advertisements to Usenet, there are many people who must go against your plea on priciple. With regard to your fear that "developers are turning away", I _really_ wouldn't worry about it. The ones that have suffered this long MUST be gluttons for punishment. :-) > UseNet was the place where I found out about Quick ST II and thanx >to that I'm gonna be able to get it. I usually get most of my info off of >this medium of communication, so I think that Darek's choice of posting >here was pretty good. Do you think Usenet would be just as useful if it were filled with commercial advertisements? [Not necessarily rhetorical.] > On the other hand: Darek, I didn't like the way you got on >someone's case when s/he tried to get some info about pd programms which >would put a picture on desktop... Might I humbly suggest email for this purpose? This ad hominem stuff is how newsgroup threads get _ugly_. Dave Baggett dmb%wam.umd.edu@uunet.uu.net