From: rossi@opal.cs.tu-berlin.de (Oliver Rosenkranz)
Subject: Re: comp.sys.atari.8bit.archive
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Organization: Techn. University of Berlin, Germany
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Date: Sun, 20 Dec 1992 23:38:19 GMT

Jeff McWilliams <JJMCWILL@MTUS5.BITNET> writes:

>I have to agree with Michael Current, somebody did a poll a while ago
>to start a news grous for Atari 8 bit binaries, and the results seemed to
>indicate that there aren't very many readers using this newsgroup.
>But there does seem to be indications that people on Compuserve and GEnie
>who don't have diret Internet access are receiving and reading the
>Digests, which is a good thing.
>
>I'd like to suggest that rather than lobby for a new newsgroup, you consider
>backing one or both of the following ideas:
>
>a. do like Michael says, post the articles here, and have them stored in
>   a programming/tutorial directory at Atari.archive.umich.edu.
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).
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.
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.

>Regarding program development:
>
>Personally, I don't think we need any more Arcade Shoot Em up games.
>There have been several of these released in the last 3 or 4 years,
>and Software Infinity carries quite a few imports that are quite new.
>Frankly, I haven't heard any stories of heards of people flocking to
>buy up these games.
You're absolutely right...


...
>my own.  We don't need another word processor, unless it's something
>really special, maybe mixing the Bells and Whistles of Paperclip with
>the macro capability of Textpro version 5 and the 80 column output of
>Atariwriter 80 or Turboword 80.  How about a new B/Graph?  One that can
>import data from a spread sheet application, and prints graphics that
>are better than the old Graphics 8 screen dumps.  We STILL don't have any
>kind of 2-d CAD program, or a schematic design program. For me, as an
>engineering kinda guy, these are a must.
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).

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...

--==rossi==--