Re: A Note to the FAQ Keeper (was Re: Nathan does it again!)

[dalloff@freenet.columbus.oh.us (Dave Althoff)]

Gawd, this is childish!

I hate to defend Nathan's actions, simply because I think that all of this
Mates vs. Turley crap has gone on too long and gone too far and put us
*all* through entirely too much hell.  But that is precisely what I am
about to do.

Even though it is, no doubt, in the FAQ, I haven't looked in a while and
don't know for sure exactly what the c.s.a2 charter (or whatever you want
to call it; I'm not a Usenet expert) says about FAQ access.  But to the
best of my knowledge, as FAQ-keeper, Nathan is required to do the following:

o Post the ASCII version of the comp.sys.apple2 FAQ to comp.sys.apple2 on
  a regular basis
o Post the ASCII version of the c.s.a2 FAQ to news.answers on a regular basis

I don't know this for sure, but I'll bet there is a provision in there for
making the c.s.a2 FAQ available unrestricted via anonymous FTP from some
archive site.

I'm almost willing to bet that there is no provision requiring Nathan (or
anyone else) to make an HTML version of the FAQ available on the World
Wide Web.  He does that as a public service to the Apple ][ community, not
because Usenet's rules (if you can call them that) require it.  My opinion
is that as FAQ keeper, he is required to make the FAQ available from
c.s.a2, and probably from news.answers, to all users.  If he were to close
down web access to the FAQ entierly, I believe that would be his
perogative...like it or not, those pages are his, even though it could be
argued that he doesn't own the content from which those pages were created.

With that in mind, I notice that several c.s.a2 FAQ documents have been
posted to c.s.a2 recently, and I suggest that anyone unfortunate enough to
be calling in from a domain that Nathan doesn't like should simply
download those documents.

In this case--
Do I think that what Nathan is allegedly doing is allowable?  Yes.
Do I agree with it?  No.  In fact, my guess is that his action will prompt
"someone" to do precisely what he is complaining about.

Now, if you will excuse me, I'm going back to dealing with Apple ]['s and
roller coasters...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
-- 
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