From: aa700@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Michael Current)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: comp.sys.atari.8bit.archive
Date: 21 Dec 1992 15:22:21 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: aa700@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Michael Current)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


In a previous article, rossi@opal.cs.tu-berlin.de (Oliver Rosenkranz) says:

>I didn't say that posting it here is a bad idea but think of all the guys
>NOT writing (pure readers) or reading this newsgroup once a week or something
>like that. I know people here in Europe reading this newsgroup but do not post
>anything because they think their ENGLISH is too bad (as mine is).

To all such people: I don't care how bad your English is, participate in
this discussion group!

>I read comp.sys.atari.8bit regularly (nearly every day) and everytime I
>come up there are at least 10 articles posted here. Not everyone has the time
>to read everything. If you read here once a week lots of articles would be
>deleted without reading them first. An .archive newsgroup wouldn't be
>as 'overcrowded' because there wouldn't be as much articles.

Do you read newsgroups other than comp.sys.atari.8bit?  I mean,
comp.sys.atari.st sees around 75-100 postings a day, rec.games.video more
than that.  I can't say I've heard c.s.atari.8bit described as
'overcrowded' before.  (I agree, 10 message/day sounds about right for this
group.)

>There is really no reason for not sending them to the archive site. The
>newsgroup moderator shall do exactly this to give new aspects to this site.
>But a newsgroup has several advantages :
>1. Readers can respond and send follow-ups (published coordinated by the
>   moderator).
>2. You don't have to ftp to a site, not knowing if there is anything new
>   there.
>3. You read newsgroups more often than you ftp to the archive.
>4. ftp site capacity is limited. This is not a good argument but it is one.
>5. Seeing articles automatically could be more creative and motivating to
>   people.
>6. You publish it to people all over the world. The AC mag is mostly selled
>   in the US (isn't it ?).
>   Maybe combinating all three solutions of the problem (and there is one)
>   would be the best solution at all.

These are all basically valid for postings to comp.sys.atari.8bit.

>Oh there are programs for that (I own at least one 2-d CAD program) but you
>Americans don't know of that because they were published in Europe.
>Guys you're not allone on this planet and everywhere are good programs
>written. And for sure, out here in Germany there are several great programmers
>for the little ATARI (think of TURBO-BASIC, never reached by anything else).
>This' no flame, but there are moments while reading this newsgroup when I
>think this is an US newsgroup (with local store infos and selling lists).

There's a simple solution to our ignorance of happenings on the other half
of the planet.  If we don't know something is available, then post here
with the correction, I'm sure peopole would like to know about it.  Like
all core Usenet groups, comp.sys.atari.8bit is available worldwide,
belonging to all areas equally.  Like all core Usenet groups, postings of
only local significance (like wanted/for sales) should properly include a
Distribution: line, limiting propagation to the local geographic area.  But
since this is such a sparsely used group, complaints about such postings
have been minimal to nonexistant.

>Think of the new newsgroup twice, because you, Jeff, are one of the
>guys having the knowledge to write articles for it. This has nothing to
>do with AC (I can understand why you stand for it here) and please DO
>stand together as ATARI users and do whatever is the best for this 'family'.
>I think, a new newsgroup AND putting selected articles to AC and the ARCHIVE
>would be the best way to inform the readers well...

Jeff will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe AC is striving to be a
worldwide forum for 8-bit Atari users.

Another consideration is that a small but significant number of
participants of this discussion group do not have Usenet access, reading
the Info-Atari8 Digest.  These people would not have access to another
newsgroup.

And again, the point is probably moot, because if we can not produce 100
Yes votes we simply cannot create another newsgroup.
-- 
         Michael Current, Cleveland Free-Net 8-bit Atari SIGOp
Carleton College, Northfield, MN, USA / UUCP: ...!umn-cs!ccnfld!currentm
      Internet: currentm@carleton.edu / Cleveland Free-Net: aa700
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit