Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!haven!purdue!decwrl!sun!quintus!ok From: ok@quintus.UUCP (Richard A. O'Keefe) Newsgroups: comp.os.misc Subject: Re: A call for votes! Message-ID: <1031@quintus.UUCP> Date: 20 Apr 89 20:32:19 GMT References: <480@jolnet.ORPK.IL.US> <453@sequoia.UUCP> <522@jolnet.ORPK.IL.US> Reply-To: ok@quintus.UUCP (Richard A. O'Keefe) Distribution: usa Organization: Quintus Computer Systems, Inc. Lines: 80 In article <522@jolnet.ORPK.IL.US> scythian@jolnet.ORPK.IL.US (Jeff ) writes: > I like the idea of a primos newsgroup ... In comp.os.* we have eunice cpm minix misc vms os9 xinu research In comp.sys.* we have amiga apollo apple atari att cbm celerity dec encore hp ibm/pc intel m6809 m68k mac masscomp misc next nsc proteon pyramid ridge sequent sgi sun tahoe tandy ti xerox transputer zenith In comp.sources.* we have amiga atari bugs d games mac misc unix wanted x I think it is clear from this that the net is not a UNIX/workstation club. Why these topics only? Because those are the ones that had TRAFFIC. The rule is *first* >>demonstrate<< that a lot of people are interested (don't just assert it, demonstrate it) by posting messages about the topic in a related group. For PR1MOS or PR1MIX the appropriate group is comp.os.misc. When you have enough traffic, other people will be only too pleased to see you get your own newsgroup. >I know I would not post a question about something >I cannot figure out in the comp.os.misc section either Why not? With the current set of newsgroups that's the right place to do it. >1) Because some people (no names being mentioned here) would tell me how > crummy primes are (this is NOT my opinion at all). Come off it. A newsgroup of your own is no protection either. For all I know, the "my computer is better than yours" war is still raging between comp.sys.atari.st and comp.sys.amiga. (BTW, back when I was using a P400, the spelling was "PR1ME". Is it so yet?) >3) So far I've only seen a few people respond to the vote call, so that tells > you how many people have comp.os.misc in their .newsrc file. No it doesn't. It tells you how many of the people who responded have not had their responses lost before they reached you, that's all. I read comp.os.misc and hadn't responded yet. >4) Anyway there are 10-20 Unix newsgroups, is 1 too much to ask for when >dealing with a larger size computer?? The size, price, quality, colour, race, creed, or sex of the computer have nothing to do with it. What counts is the degree to which people are talking about the topic on the net (not the degree to which they are talking about talking about the topic). Amdahl mainframes, running UTS/580, are Unix machines, and they are bigger than anything PR1ME have ever made. > Come on now, theres even a newsgroup for protien (bionet.molbio.protiens) >and even a alt.sex.bondage! Yes, because people got enough traffic on it. The rules are different for alt.* groups, by the way. Many sites do not carry or forward any alt.* groups. If there was enough traffic, people on the net would cheerfully agree to bionet.molbio.protein.cytochromes.murine. Let's face it, some people _have_ to use PR1MEs. Those people are going to have problems; everyone has problems with their machines and operating systems. (comp.sys.sun has _lots_ of traffic, and those machines are _wonderful_.) People with PR1MOS problems and access to the net are as much entitled to ask for help as anyone else. Until there has been enough traffic to justify a newsgroup for that topic, comp.os.misc is the right place to do it, and anyone who flames you is so bad-mannered that you should pay no attention. And if you have source code that you would like to make available to other PR1ME users, or if you want to ask whether someone has a program to do something on a PR1ME system, comp.sources.{wanted,misc,...} are for you just as much as for anyone else. If your local PR1ME representative knows his, her, or its job, he, she, or it should be able to put you in touch with the PR1ME Users Group and they in turn should be able to tell you about any PR1ME-related BBS that wants to be known about.