Re: Reflections on the loss of the Official CSA2 F

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer) writes...

> jbcole@ix.netcom.com (JB) wrote:
>
>>The FAQ's are not entirely lost.  One can search on
>>http://www.dejanews.com for past postings of the FAQ.  Although I will
>>certainly miss Nathan's updates and future versions of his software I can
>>understand his departure.
>
>With Nathan gone, we may still have the FAQs on Ground, but
>they are not "official" in the sense that they can be posted to
>news.announce.  How can we make them official?  What is the
>process?

    I'm not sure if that's the best route to follow. First off, those
were never really FAQ's in a true sense. From what I've seen of them
they appear to consist of a collage of comp.sys.apple2 posting (that
makes it more an organized archive than anything else). Secondly, at
least in my case, no permission was asked in using those clippings.
I personally don't have any objection since it's almost no different
from the archives kept inside Ground's 'MiscInfo' folder or the Deja-
News Usenet archive--however, as an official and registered FAQ, it
would then be very different story.

    I think the best thing to do--considering Nathan destroyed the
existing csa2.FAQ and had copyright ownership over all the changes
he made to it anyway--would be to contact Dan DeMaggio and go back
to the point where Nathan started off. That is, get permission from
Dan to take his last update of the FAQ and start maintaining that.
This would include updating information, correcting mistakes and
adding new sections as required. You cannot just take over the FAQ
as it was in Nathan's hands--not without permission first, and going
by what was said and done in his leaving speech, I highly doubt
he'd be willing pass it on. Besides, I don't think many people were
pleased over the FAQ restriction that happened before (banning
entire sites access) or the editorial bits that made it in. A FAQ
should be all about, well, facts--and a lot less, if any, opinions.

    That said, I was working on an Apple IIgs FAQ about a year or
more ago as a more in-depth and detailed supplement to the csa2.FAQ.
It looks like now would be a good time to get back to work on it and
try and finish off enough to release it.

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca