Re: apple macintosh plus; startup disk

[Randy Shackelford <shack@onyx.southwind.net>]

Jeff Blakeney <CUTjefbla@bconnex.net> wrote:

:>Actually, since articles like this are typically cross posted to a slew
:>of Mac groups as well, there's no guarantee that the poster will read your
:>followup unless you post to the same groups.

: First, the message in question was only posted to this newsgroup.

I found it in the Mac groups too. The original post mind you, not a followup
cross posted. Maybe the guy went to the trouble of reposting the exact same
article separately.

: Second, if the person is going to post a question and not go back to
: every newsgroup to check for replies, if they miss a reply it is their
: loss.  Usenet is not a forum to ask questions that get replied in
: e-mail.  Usenet is a question AND answer forum and many people can
: benefit from the question that one person asks once.  This is better
: than having many people ask the same question many times and people
: having to send the same answer to many people many times.

Well my comment on this is the proof is in the pudding. Followups which
complain about being in the wrong group would eliminate the problem if
it actually worked. They're still coming.

:>Trying to deter future posts, which is of course a lost cause. People will
:>always post nothing useful and complain about being in the wrong group.

: Like your posts celebrating Nathan's absence and posts complaining
: about people pointing someone who is in the wrong newsgroup to the
: proper place to get their question answered by people who know what
: they're talking about?

My posts about how Nathan is gone now always have an answer to a question
to which he would reply with his trademark spew instead of giving a useful
answer. So hopefully you understand how much less useless crap gets posted
now than then.

: Not every Apple II users is also a Mac user. In fact, I'd say 50% or
: more of the readers of this group don't own a Mac at all.  Why should
: we have to read questions and answers about Macs (which happens pretty
: much every day even now) when we don't own the machine or have any
: interest in it?

Find an effective way to keep inappropriate posts out of the group. I
propose one way, others propose another. I don't see any decrease in
such posts coming about from complaining here. I've given pretty good
reasons why this doesn't work, I believe.

: Also, keep in mind that the last time I check there were over 40
: newsgroups specific to the Mac and us Apple II users only have 6; a
: few more if you include binaries and emulator groups.

: Personally, I think you would be doing a user a disservice by not
: letting them know that this isn't the appropriate place to ask
: questions about something rather than pointing them to the place that
: will yield them more and probably better quality answers than they
: would get here.  I know I'd be upset if no one pointed that out to me.

There are occasional Apple II (and III) posts in the Mac groups. I must say
that people are more cordial about inappropriate posts there.

:>Unless the poster is asking a Win/PC question, in which case someone will
:>cheerfully answer the question without complaining. People typically only
:>complain if it's a Mac question posted inappropriately.

: I'd be very interested if you could back this claim up.  I'm still
: trying to remember the last time I saw a Win/PC related question
: posted in this newsgroup, let alone one that was answered
: "cheerfully".

Like I said before I see a lot of "how do I get Win95 to print to a
Laserwriter" type stuff. If not cheerfully answered, no one complains
at least. I just ignore it like I do everything which doesn't belong
here.

: The ratio of Win/PC to Mac post in this newsgroup is probably well
: over 1 to 50.

Pretty logical since the PC crowd wouldn't expect a group with apple in its 
name to be at all germaine while the uninitiated Mac type might.

: Well, now that I have that off my chest, and it isn't the first time
: I've made these points, I'll try to keep myself from repeating these
: points again in the future.

Me too. Everyone should just try email replies if they don't like what's
being posted. At worst it'll keep a thread like this from going ad nauseum.
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