Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!giza.cis.ohio-state.edu!karl From: karl@giza.cis.ohio-state.edu (Karl Kleinpaste) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Re: GEnie uplink is shut down.. Message-ID: Date: 23 Dec 89 02:31:08 GMT References: <15158@well.UUCP> <1989Dec22.220525.3316@ns.network.com> Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Organization: OSU Lines: 51 In-reply-to: logajan@ns.network.com's message of 22 Dec 89 22:05:25 GMT logajan@ns.network.com writes: You shouldn't let people brow beat you. Doing the right thing does not always win you popularity contests. Some of us would contend that Mr Small is doing precisely the right thing by shutting it down until it fits into the overall environment properly, both technically and politically. His initial implement- ation fit under neither consideration, and he now understands why. Sometimes you have to be a moral/ethical leader rather than a follower. This selfish group of USENET whiners is in desperate need of a model to emulate. You have the credibility to be that model. I don't whine for anybody, Mr Logajan, nor am I in need of a moral or ethical role model. Name-calling accomplishes startlingly little. Further, with as much respect as I can muster for Mr Small, he does not (yet) have the credibility for such things. He said himself that his implementation of things was not exactly up to par, and that he doesn't even know how such matters as email addressing are managed. His suggestions for how to implement an email gateway are, to be blunt, naive. What he requires is experience; that's all. If he re-does the link correctly, he'll get that experience. And then he'll have the credibility, and will have earned the respect of those who are concerned about the care with which such things are implemented. No one has answered my question about why telephone companies, computer companines, modem companies and software companies can all make money off USENET sites and GEnie can't. You appear not to have been reading very closely. Quite a few of us have agreed quite readily that there is no reason GEnie shouldn't make a profit, given especially precedents in the form of Portal and others. Many of us disagreed only with the imbalance of the link, not its existence or the profit to be made from it. I should be offended by your whimping out and leaving the GEnie user in the information poor house. Might it occur to you that he may face somewhat more disagreeable users on the GEnie side, and that turning the link off is quite the opposite of "wimping out?" That he will now have to face them to say, "I had to turn it off because it needs to be redesigned properly?" I daresay he's got quite a bit of work ahead of himself; he's not wimping out in the least. Your predilection toward name-calling completely eradicates any argument you might have had. --Karl