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Mail Archives: opendos/1997/03/18/08:41:03

Message-Id: <199703181329.AA00511@mail.crl.com>
From: "Weiqi Gao" <weiqigao AT crl DOT com>
To: <opendos AT mail DOT tacoma DOT net>
Subject: Re: [opendos] Why a Newsgroup?
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 07:31:59 -0600
Mime-Version: 1.0

Scott Bolander wrote:

>And why is it that you are discussing SOURCE CODE on a general OpenDOS
>mailing list?

As with any mailing list situation, the content of the mailing list is
defined by the people who's on the mailing list, actively contributing to
the traffic.  Notice that there are only a handful of regular contributors
to the list, one of them the creater of the list, who's also "working" on
the SOURCE CODE of OpenDOS.  I'd give them a free ride on the list,
discussing anything that they want.

>I just looked through my "deleted items" folder and I
>noted that just about 83.2% (442/531  give or take) of the messages were
>"me too's" or "Linux is great" or "if we change a byte at offset "bssh
>thef ukup" then we can get an extra birthday" or "Microsoft sucks 'cause
>Quake won't run on the Tandy 2000 I found in my neighbor's trash" or
>"look at me!  I know cool stuff like linux...  maybe soon I'll move out
>of my parent's basement"  etc....

Me too's are needed in a mailing list, especially at the beginning stages
of DOING anything.  And one of the main themes of the list is "How can we
take advantage of the imminent release of the source code of OpenDOS.  It
is natural for die-hard DOS programmers to be elated, and want to try
EVERYTHING.  It is very good that we have some thoughtful people on the
list who's willing to maintain a "wish list" so that prioritization can
take place later on.  Most of the me too's are for the wish list.

Linux is great!  I'd say it again. It's not said enough times.

"if we change a byte at offset "bsshthef ukup" then we can get an extra
birthday", this must be a misquote on your part, since I cannot find the
post that said it.

"Microsoft sucks 'cause Quake won't run on the Tandy 2000 I found in my
neighbor's trash", another misquote.

"look at me!  I know cool stuff like linux...  maybe soon I'll move out of
my parent's basement", another misquote.

>Stop trying to impress other trekies with this crap that belongs
>elsewhere and then this forum can be used for things like:  "Hey I found
>this cool OpenDOS trick that speeded up my system" or "this causes a
>crash on my system, anyone else?".  I guess if you compare these
>questions with the ones more common on the GENERAL OpenDOS forum, even
>you might be able to discern a difference.  

Like I said earlier, the contributors define the mailing list.  For some
reason, the developers among the contributors have not used the
opendos-developer mailing list, although it is created a couple of days
after the opendos mailing list went online.  If you insist, and the
developers agree, we can move all the developer discussions to the
opendos-developer, and leave this list for bug reports.

>A lot of the comments on here are not even OpenDOS specific; like all
>those arguments about DOS mailers and what-not.

That's the way a mailing list works---someone shoot an idea or an opinion
off the hip, and everybody else TRIES TO HELP.

>Also no one is "insulting you" for HAVING ideas, just the thoughtless
>manner in which SOME choose to inundate us with them.  If you truly have
>some sort of divine inspiration about changing a byte in the systems
>files that allows your keyboard to become "man-seed" absorbent (for all
>those friendless, lonely nights) - DON'T DISCUSS IT ON THE GENERAL
>MAILING LIST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Take it to the developer's list
>or to "alt.bestiality" or something.  Now its past your curfew; go to
>bed!  You have a long day of programming ahead of you.

This paragraph---read it again---this paragraph, is insulting.  I printed
it out and showed it to ten people, ten out of ten agreed that it is
insulting.

--
Weiqi Gao
weiqigao AT crl DOT com

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