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From: dlm@druwy.ATT.COM (Dan Moore)
Newsgroups: news.misc,comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: GEnie uplink is shut down..
Message-ID: <4578@druwy.ATT.COM>
Date: 26 Dec 89 16:33:52 GMT
References: <966@crash.cts.com>
Organization: AT&T, Denver, CO
Lines: 65

[Let me start by saying that while this reads like a flame of Diane,
that it isn't.  It is a flame against a much larger group, not just one
person.  Diane's note was just a convienent starting point.  --- dlm]

in article <966@crash.cts.com>, canada@crash.cts.com (Diane Barlow
Close) says:
> Next I received some reliable information that Dave was on the
> verge of licensing the ``link technology'' to GEnie.  If we
> didn't act very fast to convince Dave to rethink the link, it
> wouldn't matter if *his* atari newsgroup-GEnie link were shut
> down, 'cause GEnie would be busy draining (and copyrighting) the
> rest of Usenet.  (And Dave, Mark Booth did NOT give me this
> information, so you can start talking to him again.)

	Very interesting.  I talk to Dave far more than most people and I
NEVER heard anything about his "licensing the ``link technology''.  I
suspect that your "source" wasn't as well informed as he/she thought.

> That's not to say I was just in this ``battle'' to raise the cry
> and then leave.  No sir.  I was prepared for the long haul.  Dave
> actually surprised me when he withdrew the link so suddenly after
> only a few days of protest.  His first posting led me to believe
> that the link would be here for a long time no matter what.

	Dave withdrew the link since he was SURPRISED that so many
people were against it.  Especially since he had said he was working on
it in the past and no one complained.  So he went ahead and set up a
simple pass though to GEnie, announces it and suddenly was the target of
lots of attacks.  Given that why shouldn't he take the easy way out and
shutdown?  Remember he thought he was doing something people would
approve of.

	And where in the first posting did he say the link was going to
stay up no matter what?  (I believe you are reading what you want to
into his note.)

	I happen to think that a Usenet to GEnie link, either one or
two way is a bad idea.  Mainly because of the high S/N ratio on the
commercial nets like GEnie (at one time or another I've used all of
them).  But if such a link goes up I'm not going to worry about it.
I'm already on several of the commercial nets, having what I say here
also posted there doesn't change things very much.

	I am very surprised at how many people treated this.  People
are now using this as a way of bragging that they were ready to fight
the battle till the bitter end.  And how if it hadn't been for them
that Usenet would have been ruined.  Almost sounds like they (and there
are lots of people in that "they") need the PR in order to join the
"net gods".

	This all could've been handled, politely, with a few email
messages to Dave telling him why he was wrong to setup a one way link
to GEnie.  He does read and answer his mail.  (It does take awhile, his
mail/news feed adds at least 1 day, and often 2 days, each directtion.)
Instead there was a wild attack with no attempt to try milder measures.


	Oh well, maybe it was just time for a good flame war and Dave
was just the easiest target.


			Dan Moore
			AT&T Bell Labs
			Denver
			dlm@druwy.ATT.COM