Re: Delphi users vs. Dr. Tom

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

Todd P. Whitesel writes ...
> 
> Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net> writes:
> 
> >     Possibly you know that Dr. Tom is among the most creative and
> >productive originators of Apple II projects. ....
>

     As Jeff B notes, your presentation of the position you, yourself,
appear to identify as "fascist" is a marked improvement over earlier
attempts by the usual crowd of inept bunglers. There are a few points of
disagreement.

     You say the Dr. Tom blew many chances to "go straight". The truth
is that, following admitted and repented-for piracy dealings in the late
GS era, there is no evidence of intended piracy.

     The chances he "blew" were chances to conform. That Dr. Tom refused
to join the mini-clique of self-proclaimed "elite users" was bad enough.
That he dared to produce an independent GS Worldview and A2-2000,
sponsor the 1WSW software development team, promote a new on-line users
group, arrange with AOL for moving their A2 archives to Ground, etc.
positively drove them up the wall.

     Rather than welcome Dr. Tom's efforts to expand and enhance Apple
II computing, the net Nazis have picked away at any flaw. They could
post constructive, helpful corrections just as we do when addressing the
errors they make. Instead they attack every Dr. Tom slip-up, and,
usually, managed to conclude each attack with a charge of "piracy".

     You may recall the Word Perfect episode. After days of following
leads and making long-distance calls, Dr. Tom announced that the owners
of Word Perfect had agreed to reclassify the product and allow it to be
placed on ftp sites for free downloading. When it turned out that the
person who gave the permission had made a mistake (her company no longer
owned Word Perfect), Dr. Tom was immediately attacked for "pirating"
Word Perfect.

     There are many such examples which could be listed here. Just look
at the recent mini-war which erupted over the release of HeadHunter-- a
HyperCard stack game poking fun at flamers. A programmer contacts Dr.
Tom, says he wants to do programming for 1WSW and, sure enough, delivers
HeadHunter. Dr. Tom, trusting as always, uploads the new game to Ground
and posts an announcement only to have it quickly brought to his
attention that the background music was not original, that, in fact, it
was lifted from another program without permission. Of course, the
'usual suspects' wasted no time in posting charges of thievery.


     You, somehow, manage to link Dr. Tom's activities with a supposed
exodus of long-time Apple II users from usenet to on-line services.
Surely you must realize that such exodus as there might be is, chiefly,
away from Apple products and to PC. As for Dr. Tom's efforts, the most
objectionable aspect of his projects has always been the mean spirited
criticism and lying attacks from the usual bunch of jealous trouble
makers who promote little more than flame wars.


 
> The big problem with the Apple II market for years has been that we have a
> bunch of users trying to "save the community" by acting as if all copyrights
> are dead the minute a company stops actively offering their Apple II product,
> but we also have a bunch of users (and a nearly deterioriated clump of
> companies) tyring to "save the market" by acting as if all copyrights are
> still live until explicitly released into the public domain by their
> respective owners (which is how the law sees it, when invoked).
> 
> One group shouts "piracy", the other shoots back with "fascist!".
> 
> Both are right.
> 
> Whether you like it or not, such fascism was the only thing keeping the last
> remaining Apple II companies expecting to make any money off new Apple II
> products. The attitude of piracy suddenly being okay much of the time did
> not sit well with businesspeople already looking at declining profits and
> lots of pressure to move on and dedicate all their energy to the Mac or PC.
>

     Once again, you appear to overlook the basic realities of our
situation. The reason software producers have difficulty making a decent
profit on Apple II wares is that nearly everyone is using and investing
in his/her PC.

     Another problem is marketing. With a few exceptions, today's A2
developers and vendors have not progressed beyond Lemon Stand 101. (Free
hint: One does not post messages on the world's most widely read Apple
II newsgroup accusing all of ones prospective customers of piracy.) 

     If there is any problem with an attitude that "piracy is okay", you
have no one to blame but the "fascists" you seem to admire. They are the
ones who insist upon calling Asimov a "pirate site" because it archives
ancient wares from companies which no longer exist or which do not
care-- which, in fact, will refuse to accept payment when it is offered.
It is the net Nazis who label users who download from Asimov as
"pirates". They are the ones who post attack messages when they learn
that someone is doing something so truly heinous as sending a diskette
to a newbie which includes a bootable ProDOS. It's small wonder that
'everyone thinks piracy is okay'; thanks to your pals, everyone IS a
pirate.

 
> I personally felt that Dr. Tom contributed more than anyone else to dividing
> the Apple II community. The secondary and far more devastating effect of
> this division was to turn off many people expecting to find a C64-like user
> community. ....
>

     Don't you suppose that the C64 community has one or two
non-conformist innovators and promoters? Maybe the big difference is
that they do not have a clique of power-crazed nitwits who insist upon
_creating_ divisions.

     
 
> The people on GEnie/Delphi are serious about their Apple II's such that
> they are willing to pay money to use a forum which is actively maintained.
> Usenet will never be this, so anyone who can't/won't pay for an online
> service pretty much has to use usenet (or AOL freebies) as their forum for
> discussion. ....
>

     Csa2 appears to be "actively maintained". (I wonder how many major
computer newsgroups have two large FAQs!)  Delphi appears to be a
well-maintained resource, too. There is no reason to promote conflict
between the two. We can benefit from csa2 _and_ from Delphi.



> The reason we saw so much of Dr. Tom here is because he got
> himself booted from all the other services, or couldn't afford them in the
> first place.
>

     When you are mailbombed and when there are persons willing to flood
your ISP with bogus complaints in order to drain its legal resources,
then, yes, it can be difficult to hang onto an account. Even so, Dr. Tom
continues to maintain at least one account, an info-packed website, and
a major area (1WSW) on the largest Apple II ftp site. My guess is that
his net presence far exceeds yours and mine combined. 


 
> Most of the people on Delphi are convinced through personal experience that
> Dr. Tom is a total psycho. They've long since given up trying to take him
> seriously because it turned out to be a total waste of their time. Dr. Tom
> would not give up, repeatedly ignored lessons he should have learned from
> the numerous times he was beat back, and would not ever rely on independent
> and impartial sources for his controversial claims. Over and over again he
> would ask people to call him for the truth or to give him an address to mail
> his proof to. But it always seemed to come from him directly. Why was nobody
> else with a well-established reputation willing to support Dr. Tom? Why did
> Dr. Tom occasionally make claims that could be disproved by Apple manuals??
>

     As you say, Dr. Tom, though constantly attacked and "beat back",
would not give up. I recall another user, an old guy named Adalbert, who
used to post lots of "dumb" newbie questions that others (including me)
were too embarrassed to ask. The "elite" types picked on him, too; but,
he kept coming back for more and, even, posted some stuff to help other
users. Those "psychos" are all the same, aren't they?  

 
> Back about the time Dr. Tom threatened to sue me, I asked for simple evidence
> that his OSRL or 1WSW were actually registered as a corporate entity of some
> kind with the U.S. Gov't, so I could check their tax status. No answer.
>

     Good for you! When all else fails, check the old tax status.
Naturally, you filed a complaint with the IRS?

 
> In the early days of Dr. Tom's net presence here on csa2, most of the times
> when I used my own channels to double-check Dr. Tom's stories, the response
> was either non-confirming or contradictory to what it should have been had
> Dr. Tom been acting legitimately.
>

     When I worked for II Alive, several situations arose where
information supplied by Dr. Tom conflicted with that from some
'respectable Apple II personage'. In every case, Dr. Tom's version
proved accurate. Still, as a promoter and 'wheeler-dealer', Dr. Tom has
over-hyped from time to time and, probably, cut a few corners, as well.  

 

> Even when we asked Dr. Tom to just do the things he seemed to do well, like
> answering questions on csa2, he couldn't get that right either. Sometimes he
> would make some overly-optimistic claim about, say, one of Nathan's programs.

     There's a biggee crime if ever there was one, especially since
Nathan was never over-optimistic about anything Dr. Tom did.


> Nathan (who had previously gotten email from users who were mad because they
> heard on usenet that something was released, yet they couldn't find it, or
> they found an old version that didn't do what they heard it could do) would
> come down hard on Dr. Tom for misrepresenting his programs.

     And well that he should! If some dip said a bunch of unsolicited,
partially inaccurate, really nice things about SuperQuest, Eamon NuEdit,
SuperPac, etc., I'd naturally nail his/her ass to the wall, too. 


> All too often
> Dr. Tom would get prissy and attack Nathan,

     Obviously, that Dr. Tom person is a bottomless pit of ingratitude.


> and flame wars would get going.
>

     Actually, if you take the time to check, you will find that
virtually all of the flame wars involving Dr. Tom began with an attack
_on_ him, not by him. 
     

 
> It bothers me a lot to see people here accusing Nathan of being the biggest
> asshole around. ....

     Yeah, me too.


Rubywand

-- 
Rubywand