From: dmb@case.ai.mit.edu (David Baggett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: ADVOCACY: Re: Convince me to stick with Atari. Why Bother?
Date: 12 Jan 93 15:01:42 GMT
Organization: MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
NNTP-Posting-Host: case.ai.mit.edu

In article <q7a0wB2w165w@status.gen.nz> jonc@status.gen.nz (Jon Clarke) writes:
>dmb@case.ai.mit.edu (David Baggett) writes:
>
>> In article <8FV5wB8w165w@status.gen.nz> jonc@status.gen.nz (Jon Clarke) write
>> You say you'll do anything, but you won't even BOTHER giving any
>> arguments.  Hmmm.
>> 
>> >                         WHY BOTHER to convince you!
>> 
>> Tell me why I should bother writing more software for you then.
>> 
> Well not wanting to get into a flame war with you Dave or anyone in
> paticular, but do you not think this in itself is a defeatist attitude?

How is it defeatist?  Writing good software takes an enormous amount
of time, and in the Atari market it's done with no thanks at all.
The attitude of "why bother" is the Atari spirit now, it seems.
"Why bother trying to get new users on board?"  "Why bother trying
to keep developers happy?"  "Why bother sending in my shareware
payment?  Let Dave Baggett rot in hell!"

> I personally do not mind if you will or will not write software for me
> as a user, as I have all the software I need and it consists of only
> a few packages these days.

I have ten things to say:  "Me me me me me me me me me me."  While many
of you who still vehemently claim the Atari is a "fun" computer to own,
and that companies should develop new things for th ST/TT/Falcon
series, you exhibit this kind of "ME" attitude frighteningly often.
Face it, folks, the market can't surivive without your support.  Atari
Corp. has produced the lousy climate, but attitudes like this only make
it worse!

Again, what impetus is their for me to write more free software, much
less commerical software?  It used to be that I did it for fun and that
I thought I might be able to pay some of my rent with shareware
payments every once in a while.  It's no longer fun (the machines are
SO slow now in comparision to other things I've worked on), and no one
cares anymore.  Talk about defeatist attitudes -- it's clear from your
tone that you DON'T care what happens to Atari developers and Atari
users provided YOU'RE happy.  It once again blows the theory that the
Atari community is wonderfully supportive.

> The point I was raising was why do we in this news group always go 
> throught this "Convience me to stay with Atari" every few months.

Because Atari's line of computers sucks by current standards, so 
people rightly feel that putting more money into them might not
be such a great idea.

> If you care to read the posts I refered to you would see that his
> mind is made up already.

I've been reading Chris's messages closely.  All the asked was why he
shouldn't jump ship?  There was a time when you guys could have
answered that without name calling and leaping into defensive mode.
But then, there are fewer factual reasons to stick with Atari than
there were before.

Dave Baggett
--
dmb@ai.mit.edu           MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory                  
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