Re: SSII (was Re: Some copyright info to think about

[CUTjefbla@bconnex.net (Jeff Blakeney)]

On Wed, 29 Apr 1998 11:22:15 -0500, Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>
wrote:

>Todd P. Whitesel writes ...
>> 
>> Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net> writes:
>> 
>> >> The Apple II world would definitely suffer without this free forum.
>> 
>> >     The Apple II world would not suffer.
>> 
>> >     It would be gone.
>> 
>> Did you _read_ his post or did you just compose snappy responses?
>>
>
>     Of course the post was read.

Well then, obviously you didn't understand what you read.

Without comp.sys.apple2 the Apple II community would still have FTP,
IRC, the WWW, local BBS', internet BBS' (that you telnet to), and
Delphi's forum and chat areas.  All of which are free of charge with
the exception of the cost of an ISP but you need one of those to read
comp.sys.apple2 anyways so it doesn't count.

Then there are the "pay" services.  Paid account on Delphi (so that
you can access the file areas and more), Genie, Compuserve, Shareware
Solutions II, Juiced.GS, TEXAS II and local user groups.

Then there are still the companies that continue to support the Apple
II that share information and sell services, software and hardware to
the Apple II community.

And these are just what I came up with off the top of my head.  I'd
say with that much variety that the Apple II community would not
disappear.

I'm also not saying that losing comp.sys.apple2 would do the Apple II
community no harm.  It would hurt the community but it certainly
wouldn't kill it.

To me, the current center of the Apple II community is Delphi.  Genie
comes second because of the file library, which contains archives of
all the old messages so that you can find information on anything,
which is also nicely organized and has everything in one spot.  This
is why I haven't made heavy use of FTP sites.  They either don't have
everything I want in one site or the organization is so poor I can't
find what I'm looking for.

With respect to Genie and Delphi disappearing if comp.sys.apple2
disappears, you've got to be kidding.  If comp.sys.apple2 were to
disappear today there would be absolutely no effect on Genie or Delphi
except maybe to increase the number of Apple II users who sign up for
the service.  (Especially Delphi as you can get free web accounts.)

The reverse, however, will not work.  If Genie and/or Delphi were to
disappear, this newsgroup would be _terribly_  hurt as I'm sure most
of the remaining Apple II companies would fold, new program releases
would come to an almost complete standstill and the number of web
pages with Apple II software would decline as all those developers and
users would leave their Apple IIs to use other machines.

Finally, with respect to your idea that Genie and Delphi need to start
doing a better job of sharing information.  How do you propose they do
that?  Delphi is already giving away free web accounts.  These
services require money to operate and employ people that need to be
paid.  They need to make money to continue to exist.  Otherwise, they
will be sharing no information because they will not exist.

And even if you do pay, $35 US per year for a telnet account on Delphi
doesn't seem unreasonable to me.  That works out to less than
$4/month.  I spend more than that on a single meal at a fast food
restaurant.

=== I've had enough SPAM.  Cut the obvious from my address to email me. ===