Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
Subject: Re: PasteUp vs PageMaker vs Quark (RTF)
From: scott@nic.gac.edu (Scott Hess)
Date: 7 Sep 92 16:07:56
Organization: Gustavus Adolphus College
In-reply-to: simsong@next.cambridge.ma.us's message of 7 Sep 92 14:19:11 GMTLines: 84

In article <1992Sep7.141911.7951@next.cambridge.ma.us>
	simsong@next.cambridge.ma.us (Simson L. Garfinkel) writes:
>In article <SCOTT.92Sep4230802@nic.gac.edu>
>	scott@nic.gac.edu (Scott Hess) writes:
>> Hopefully this time around Glenn will take more vigorous action -
>> like breaking your fingers or something.  I don't know if you read
>
>I think that comments like these are nasty and uncalled for.

Indeed, I would rather not have felt the need to post them.  I
generally don't enjoy asking for people's fingers to be broken, as
that reduces the pool of people willing to associate with you.  As
you said, it's nasty.

But, in this case Jack went out of his way to point out that he
knew he was posting inappropriate material, which I think means
that he knows what he's doing, and will be accepting the
consequences.  Perhaps Glenn can just break a couple of the fingers,
so that Jack's typing speed will be greatly reduced :-).

>I really appreciate Jack posting the information and wish that more
>vendors would do so.

If it were information, that'd be fine.  But, it was a self-serving
advertisement.  Many people have asked how one can tell for certain.
I can only tell you what gave it away to me - other people's mores
may differ.  If Jack had posted a list of the features that PasteUp
had, that I would have overlooked.  But, he posted a list of what
his product had - and what other products did _not_ have.  This makes
it advertising.

Why?  Because, if he posted just a list of what his product has,
it's in his best interest to post a complete list of everything it
has.  And just that.  If he posts a comparative survey, though,
it's in his best interest to concentrate on those features his
product has and that the other products do not have, which means
the list is most likely not complete.  Also, information allows
the reader to derive their own conclusions - the intent of Jack's
post was quite obviously to derive a conclusion for the reader.



Honestly, why doesn't everyone out there who _wants_ to see such
"information" (ads) email me.  I'll compile the answers, and then
I'll start compiling reams of "information" to post to the net.
I'll also tell those developers I talk to to do the same.  My,
won't it be fun to have 20 or more large posts a day advertising
various vendors materials?  And, on whatever newsgroup appeals to
the vendor (heck, maybe we should cross-post just in case someone
doesn't read a particular group).

I didn't think so.

>I also like it being posted in RTF.  Makes it easier to read.

I had no problems with the RTF.  More precisely, I'd have rather
it weren't there, but in this instance I think it _did_ add to the
readability of this post (I only dislike RTF usage when it doesn't
add anything to the post, or even detracts).  My complaint was that
the post was blatant advertising, regardless of the "physical" form
of the post.  Also, my next layer of complaints about the post was
that it was on an inappropriate newsgroup.  If Jack had posted it
to csn.announce, that would have been better.  Of course, in that
case it also wouldn't have been accepted by the moderator.



There is an available solution that Jack could have used.  He could
have placed the document on the archive servers right next to the
Booz-Whoever study NeXT put out there, and then posted to csn.announce
telling us it was available and how to get it.  He could have set
up an email information server at RightBrain and allowed us to get
it that way.  In at least that last case, the onus is not on Jack
- he can't help it if people use NFS and other non-commercial nodes
to get to _him_.  But, he certainly can help whether he uses such
nodes to impose on people who have not requested his information.
[For more, I refer you to my follow-up post that was posted a couple
days ago on this subject.]

Later,
--
scott hess <shess@ssesco.com>  <Who achieved programmer nirvana on Aug 11th>
12901 Upton Avenue South, #326  Burnsville, MN 55337 (612) 895-1208 Anytime!
   <Text: One Class to bring them all and in the darkness bind them ...>