Long rambling post (was Re: New FAQ sites?)

[sheldon@atlcom.net (Sheldon Simms)]

In article <611hp8$sp5$1@goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au>,
pfg@yallara.cs.rmit.EDU.AU (Paul Francis Gilbert) wrote:

> After all, Mr Mates didn't seem to feel any compunctions about banning the
> entire execpc.com site, despite the fact that I understand there are several
> //e users on that site that aren't even remotely connected to Dr Tom (it
> servers the entire state [as a previous post mentioned]. Did Nathan have any
> compunctions about cutting their access just because they live in the same
> state as Tom? I doubt it.

"They" (Bill Misek) don't live in the same state as Charles Turley and
ISPs in the US are just companies. execpc.com may be one of the ISPs
where Mr. Misek lives. It may be the most prominent. It is by no means the
only ISP in the state, as you imply. Just thought a few facts might be
helpful.

To move on to a broader discussion of the topic, I have to agree that
Nathan is largely his own worst enemy on c.s.a2. To the relative c.s.a2
newbie, Nathan sure does seem like a big jerk and Charles Turley a fairly
undeserving victim of verbal attack. It's a real shame.

I think Charles Turley should be free to participate in c.s.a2 discussions
and I think Nathan should stop his tirades. It seems clear that they
won't make Charles Turley leave and tend to make people who don't know the
history behind all of this side with Charles Turley automatically.

I have been reading this newsgroup since 1989. Actually, it wasn't this
newsgroup then; it was it's predecessor group comp.sys.apple
Anyway, I had heard of "Dr. Tom" long before he appeared on usenet.
He was well known to the usenet Apple II community at that time as a
software pirate and, in fact, he does not deny that he sold pirated
software to help support a crack habit. However he says that he no longer
pirates software or uses drugs. OK, I'll take his word that he doesn't
use drugs anymore, I have no evidence to the contrary, despite the
bizarre and senseless postings and emails that he apparently writes on
occasion.

Also, I feel sure there's no money to be made in selling illegally copied
Apple II software anymore, so I can believe Charles Turley no longer does
that. I have seen him be (actually, attempt to be) helpful to newbie
posters and Apple II users - although his information is often wrong.

I guess I would have to say that I would mentally categorize him as
"currently harmless crank" if it weren't for the Brutal Deluxe episode.
I urge all c.s.a2 readers to take the time to consider the evidence
presented in Olivier Zardini's webpage (http://www.cyberstation.fr/~zardini)

The evidence in this document is not conclusive, due to the acknowledged
possibility of forging headers and the like, but it is convincing to me
because 1) Several of the items presented have no connection to the internet,
rather people are named who have received altered and illegally copied
software directly from Charles Turley. 2) Brutal Deluxe has no reason to
perpetrate a fraud on the Apple II users community, they have spent huge
amounts of time and effort to provide software to Apple II users for
free. 3) The evidence is strong and consistent. Charles Turley's attempts
at explanatory denial are preposterous.

Lastly - and I don't offer this as evidence, just observation - Charles
Turley is intimately associated with trouble. Like I said, I have read
this newsgroup a long time. Before Charles Turley appeared there were
few, if any flames. Ever since he appeared there has been non-stop
flames and other crap that has made this newsgroup almost useless for
years. I don't doubt that some of this is merely due to the general
expansion of access to usenet. When I started reading this group it was
almost all programmers and other technical people. Probably half the
active posters were authors of commercial Apple II software. They're all
gone now - in large part due to the activities of people like Charles
Turley, in my opinion.

I don't mean to say that they would all be still
selling Apple II programs today if Charles Turley had stayed off usenet.
I just try to stand in their shoes and think:

"Why should I bother to waste my time writing a good program for a shrinking
market when the internet is filling up with people who will use it to steal
my hard work?"

and furthermore:

"Why should I bother even reading the newsgroup and helping people out when
I am going to be reviled as a narrowminded jerk for trying to protect my
work and the people who illegally copy and distribute it are hailed as
heros who are saving the Apple II?"

It is very sad to me that these people are gone and it saddens me that
some people on this newsgroup that I otherwise think of as intelligent,
helpful, and welcome additions to c.s.a2 jump to the defense of Charles
Turley and bad mouth and insult the few remaining developers of Apple II
software. I am a computer programmer by profession and at one time I
wanted to write some Apple II software to sort of "pay back" for all the
great times I had as a kid playing on my Apple IIe. I changed my mind
several years ago when I saw what thanks Joe Kohn, Brutal Deluxe and
Richard Bennett got for their efforts.

Well. I'm sorry for the excessively long, poorly organized ramble. I just
typed till the words stopped.

-- 
W. Sheldon Simms III   |   2000 is *still* the 20th century
sheldon@atlcom.net     |