From: timm@void.ncsa.uiuc.edu (Tim McClarren)
Subject: Re: Avoid RightBrain (was: Re: PasteUp vs PageMaker vs Quark...)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 04:20:45 GMT

glenn@rightbrain.com (Glenn Reid) writes:

>My sense is that people are overreacting somewhat, but let me just say
>this in response to those of you who are advocating "Avoid RightBrain"
>or "Boycott RightBrain" or whatever:  first of all, we're not Pillsbury
>or Carnation, and a boycott is not just a nuisance, it's a big deal.  Do
>you really think that's the right way to handle an inappropriate net
>posting, or are you just still in college?

Very dimplomatic of you.  I suppose making digs on the college students
won't lose you any sales though, so what the hell.

>Please: send us mail to complain; we listen to you.

No, you obviously don't.  I think that has been demonstrated.

>And one final thing: USENET is an anarchy.  There is no police force,
>barely any guidelines, and certainly no central authority.  Your opinions
>are just opinions, and so are ours.  We pay for our news feed and we obey
>the laws.  We have observed over time that there are approximately 10,000
>"silent" readers for every vocal poster, and that the vast majority of
>people who send us Email DO NOT AGREE with the five or six people who
>flame constantly on the net.

We all know this.  It is not a matter of rules or laws or anything else.
Even if the posts in news.announce.newuser mentioned nothing of blatant
commercial advertising on the net, I would still ask that you refrain
from posting them, and also label RTF posts as such, not so much that
it would be "following the rules", but out of consideration of your fellow
USENETters.  The unlabelled RTF post thing is simply a major nuisance
for many of us with wimpy data feeds.  I would think being UUCP that
you might understand that.

>At the moment, we have agreed to abide by the common opinion posted to
>the net, even though it runs counter to most of the feedback we've gotten
>from people who don't like to post to the net.  It's important that you
>all consider this, because it means that the VOCAL FEW decide your fate,
>rather than the silent majority.  A 19k posting that provides actual
>information is completely lost in the noise compared to USENET as a whole,
>and even compared to this newsgroup.  A handful of people (essentially
>all of them in college, for what it's worth) have decided that we are
>evil and wanton in our disregard for the net rules, when in reality it is
>not the least bit clear what is right and wrong.

No, you're evil and wanton because you show no consideration for other
folks.  That's my complaint.  Others may think differently.  Incidentally,
I'm not "in college", for what it's worth.  Why don't you simply start a
mailing list for those folks who are interested?  NeXT has one, I see
no reason why you can't.

>Anyway, I'm slightly irritated, and I apologize for my tone, but I get
>tired of a bunch of 19-year-olds with too much time on their hands
>deciding that the future of USENET belongs to them, while dozens to
>hundreds of people who pay for their news feeds send us mail thanking
>us for providing useful information.  Apologies to those of you who are
>over 19, who have already graduated, and who have also legitimately
>complained.  It is you to whom we are responding.

This attitude sucks.  But like I said, when it doesn't affect the bottom
line, it doesn't matter, right?

>I have not broken Jack's fingers because he needs them to do his work.
>I have asked him to cut it out with the net postings, however.

>One good thing to come from all of this:  a couple of people suggested
>that we run an Email-based file server, along the lines of Adobe's
>ps-file-server, which can dispense information to those who Email and
>ask for it.  It so happens that I was the guy who set up
>the mail response server ps-file-server@adobe.com a long time ago, and
>if I can find the software, we are going to set up a similar service
>at RightBrain to field automatic information requests.  We'll make an
>announcement when it's ready (it'll probably be a totally
>inappropriate RTF posting :-)

This sounds great.  Really, and I mean that, even if you are 19.
(Although I know you're not, I've seen your picture...you just act it
on occasion like the rest of us on USENET).
-- 
Tim McClarren     | "...a bajillion brilliant Jobsian lithium licks."
timm@ncsa.uiuc.edu|
(217)244-0015     |