Paul Grammens wrote:
Mike Pfaiffer <pfaiffer@mts.net> wroteThe point I was trying to make (no personal criticism intended with any of this), was there is a a good deal more difference between the Apple// series and Lisa than there is between the Apple// and Apple///.That's a valid point, but who cares (besides you)? If someone posts a Lisa question here, and I can help, I'm going to answer. Feel free to complain. I'm going to do it anyway. For that matter, if someone asks a Mac question, and I know the answer, I'm going to help them and THEN mention that they might check with a Mac newsgroup next time. We're here to help. That takes precedence over rules. -Paul
Well, obviously a lot of people do care. This is why the group was called comp.sys.apple2 not comp.sys.apple.legacy. If the people in this group want to change the name and charter then I'm all for it. Until then the agreement is to stick with the topic of the group. Let's take a straw poll to see if talking about machines other than the Apple// or /// are within agreed conversation. If so then the FAQs can also be adjusted to take all this into account. Either way it will benefit the group as a whole to have this debate. As I suggested earlier, it's not a matter of helping these "lost souls". Rather it is a matter of *where* the help should take place.
As to helping people. Great! More power to you. When I can answer a Mac/PC/Amiga/Atari/Mainframe question part of the answer is always designed to have the person with the problem focus on what the problem is. If they ask the wrong group of people a vague question they might not get an answer which makes sense. As an example, when I was doing some Mac tech support for a large American ISP and people regularly phoned in with PC questions. Advice like "look in the Apple menu" or "zap your P-RAM" really wouldn't help them. This is why the ISP separated Mac and PC support. This is also why there are different hierarchies in the newsgroups. If the user can't tell what computer they have (as seen by posting Mac questions here), then it is perfectly valid to inform them of the differences and point them to a more appropriate resource. It may not be a *direct* answer to their question, but at least they now have a place where they *can* get a direct answer.
There is also the matter of advocasy. By now becoming a possible resource for Mac questions (some people here know more about the Mac than some Mac people do), wouldn't it encourage more Mac questions to this group? If everybody here is talking Mac then where is the room for the Apple// (the reason *this* group was created). Besides, do you think anybody in the Mac group would be as friendly as you and I are when it comes to people asking questions about non-Macs? Post an Apple// question in a Mac (or PC) group and I suppose the best response you will get would be a suggestion to post it here. We already focus on two related types of machines. If the focus broadened any more, how could we justify *not* allowing questions on other unrelated computer systems... By all means help. However, anything other than a couple of lines should be handled through e-mail or cross-posted to the relevant group.
FYI, the reason I am focusing on the Mac here is because of a couple of comebacks where the poster replied in a follow-up to a badly worded response, "A Mac is an Apple isn't it?". The response is the same as I gave earlier namely "Yes but it's not an Apple//". That's basically what it comes down to in these cases.
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