From: glenn@rightbrain.com (Glenn Reid)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.advocacy
Subject: Re: Avoid RightBrain (was: Re: PasteUp vs PageMaker vs Quark...)
Date: 9 Sep 92 11:19:01 GMT
Reply-To: glenn@rightbrain.com


Just in case we seem to be ignoring the followups to this....

Our news feed has been totally down for several days (bad timing, eh?).
We're in the process of trying to find out why, and fix it.  For some
reason, some small number of posts are making it through (we've gotten
about 10 total in the past three days).  I think it may just be people who
are connected to the same UUCP service that we are, but I'm not sure.

In any case, we've missed all (or most of) the fireworks related to this.
You have my personal apology for any inconveniences caused by us.

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?

Please: send us mail to complain; we listen to you.  Posting flames only
exacerbates the problem if what you're really worried about is inappropriate
postings and net bandwidth.  And rallying everybody you know to boycott
our products, although it might cause us to be more quiet on the net, might
also cause us to go somewhere else, do something else, or go out of business.
If you really want to drive all the NeXT developers out of business (or
just discourage them and make them think again about the Windows port),
it'll be YOUR machine that becomes obsolete.

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.

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.

How many of you still have a copy of the comparison Jack posted?  How
many other net postings in the past six months have you saved?  Not very
many, I'd bet, unless you're an active reader of .programmer, to which
all kinds of useful stuff is posted.

Remember, 90% of the volume on these groups is people asking questions and
answering them.  That's what the net is all about.  Just because most of
the questions are totally innocuous like "have you received 3.0 yet?" or
"how do I dim my screen when there's no one logged in" does not mean that
they don't comprise a huge percentage of the total bandwidth.  No one
flames them because they're the norm, because there's nothing that can be
done about it, and because that's basically what the net is all about.
Jack answers a question with an RTF post and it becomes an "advertisement"
(even though it had no pricing information!) because he happens to work
for the company that makes the product.  At least he was up front about
that, in his .signature line.

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.

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 :-)

--
 Glenn Reid        		NeXTmail: glenn@rightbrain.com
 RightBrain Software		415-326-2974 (NeXTfax 326-2977)
 Palo Alto, California
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.advocacy