Xref: utzoo comp.sys.amiga:13637 comp.sys.atari.st:7149
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!husc6!bloom-beacon!gatech!uflorida!codas!cpsc6a!rtech!mtxinu!unisoft!hoptoad!academ!uhnix1!sugar!karl
From: karl@sugar.UUCP (Karl Lehenbauer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: In defense of the Amiga/Atari ST flame war
Message-ID: <1401@sugar.UUCP>
Date: 16 Jan 88 05:57:41 GMT
Organization: Sugar Land UNIX - Houston, TX
Lines: 39

There has been an ongoing "net war" between a handful of vocal Atari ST and
Amiga people.  It heats up once in a while, with a flurry of virulent 
postings, then cools down, then heats up again.  After it's heated up, a 
handful of people post about what a waste of time and/or net resources it is.
I'd like to speak for a moment in defense of the "war."

First of all, concern about the wasting of net bandwidth are overblown.
"You're wasting net bandwidth" is the bogeyman on usenet, isn't it?  I 
speculate that most of the people on the net, including those who post 
messages like that pay nothing for net access.  (No tons o' followups from 
the exceptions, please)  I'd estimate the ST/Amiga war consumes no more
than 50k/month, trivial when compared to total traffic on comp.*.amiga
and comp.*.atari.st and supertrivial when compared to total net traffic.

Second of all, it's not really hurting anybody, at least not much.  The 
people who could conceivably claim they've been harmed by the war fall
into three categories:  those who've had their feelings hurt because
their computers were criticized, those who've had their feelings hurt
because they were flamed and those who would rather not see the material.
The first group need to get tough.  Flame victims have some legitimate
grievance.  Usenet postings are all too often personally insulting, but
that's hardly the exclusive province of the Amiga and ST groups.  As for
the inconvenience caused for those who don't want to read the stuff, well,
it's really not all that much. ('though you'd never know it from some of the 
followups.)  I mean, hit 'N' if you don't want to read it.  ("vn" users have 
an even easier time of it.)

Third of all, and in refutation of the second most common complaint about
the war, something good can come of it.  For example, David Beckemeyer is
seriously considering placing his Atari ST multitasking C shell in the public 
domain, partially as a result of the Amiga/ST flame wars.

And finally, it's entertaining.  Yes, I have to admit that I actually
enjoy reading the flames.  I like watching the ST guys get flayed :-) :-) :-)
It breaks up the monotony of all of the useful and informative Amiga messages 
from the likes of Chuck, Fred, Bryce, Leo, George, Carolyn, Andy, Peter et al...
can't speak for the ST camp, but hey.
-- 
..!uunet!nuchat!sugar!karl, Unix BBS (713) 933-2440