Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!oli-stl!asylum!romkey
From: romkey@asylum.sf.ca.us (John Romkey)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Commercialism
Message-ID: <1059@asylum.sf.ca.us>
Date: 9 Jan 89 22:51:53 GMT
References: <8901070414.AA00305@ETN-WLV.EATON.COM> <8901091248.AA00853@nsipo.arc.nasa.gov>
Reply-To: romkey@asylum.UUCP (John Romkey)
Organization: The Asylum; Belmont, CA
Lines: 26

In article <8901091248.AA00853@nsipo.arc.nasa.gov> goldstei@NSIPO.NASA.GOV (Steve Goldstein) writes:
>For my part, I'd welcome similar stories of poor vendor responsiveness and
>products whose performance does not meet the vendor's hype.  I can still
>decide whether or not to follow the advice.

I think that the tcp-ip mailing list (and newsgroup) is a fine place
for exchanging information about vendor products, regardless of
whether the experiences related are positive or negative. In my
opinion, sharing information is a good thing and should continue to
happen.

HOWEVER...I've seen several instances of cases where someone basically
tries to hold a vendor hostage by complaining in a public forum about
features they want to see added, or about bugs which they've never
bothered to ask or inform the vendor about. I think that this sort of
behaviour is as bad or worse than some of the blatant or not-so
blatant commercial messages various vendors post, too.

The line between an advertisement and an informational message from a
vendor is a thin one. So is the line between an unjust damaging
message and an informational message from a user.
-- 
			- john romkey
romkey@asylum.uucp	romkey@xx.lcs.mit.edu	romkey@asylum.sf.ca.us

"Maybe Acid would help."