Re: KFest 2006 report

["mdj" <mdj.mdj@gmail.com>]

Kirk Mitchell wrote:

> In Sheppy's Keynote address, he focused on our common ground... the
> Apple II community.  We're losing ground.  Which is natural for
> interests which have slipped into the "retro" era.  We can't afford
> stupid "sects" in the Apple II world.
>
> He'd be happy to make a2central.com and it's forums, libraries and
> chats free for all if we can come up with a way to at least pay for
> their maintanance. (sp).  Any ideas?  He's not willing to be bled dry
> to support this.

I too would love to see this happen. The question has to be asked
though, if service is provided for free, then what value is there in
maintaining it at all? Much of the same functionality can be provided
by a Yahoo group, if you want something private, or publicly speaking
we already have that with csa2. There's no reason for such services to
cost anything to run, when all are there for gratis on the public
network.

It's a double edged sword of course. Cost creates a barrier which when
viewed from the outside appears to be exclusivity, from the inside it
keeps the riff-raff out.

I always wonder - anyone with a2central access has access to the public
resources as well. Anyone who wants in is welcome, so ultimately, it's
up to them.

We must keep in mind that in any sufficiently diverse community there
will be differences of opinion and thus occasionally, conflict. That's
life.

Anyway, let the discussion begin, says I :-)

> Even if you can't or won't come to KFest, I hope you enjoy what tales
> come from this institution.  I'll be happy to write my experiences
> until the curtain falls.  If it falls, csa2 will be it.  I think it
> will survive even syndicomm.com.  Longevity is on csa2's side.
> Whatever animosity has been "flamed" on csa2 had better be extinquished
> if this group is going to serve as the nucleus of the Apple II
> community though.

I'll be in the US this time next year, so hopefully I'll see you all
then :-)

Matt