Message-Id: <199703181329.AA00511@mail.crl.com> From: "Weiqi Gao" To: Subject: Re: [opendos] Why a Newsgroup? Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 07:31:59 -0600 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit 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