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

[bjblackbear@ibm.net (B.J. Major)]

In article <6172tp$mg5@login.freenet.columbus.oh.us>,
dalloff@freenet.columbus.oh.us (Dave Althoff) wrote:

[delurking out of necessity again....]

(smip)

> 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

You are absolutely correct with the above two items.  Nathan is not doing
either one.  Notice that Nathan has not addressed these items in any of his
posts, either.  This entire "the FAQ is mine and I'll do what I want with
it" has got to stop and I propose the following three suggestions:

1.  Form a new csa2 group, and have it *moderated* (by someone other than
Nathan obviously).

2.  Institute a *total* boycott of Nathan's web site.  We all know where
duplicates of the FAQ are now via FTP or otherwise, I'm sure we've all
downloaded them for ourselves, so why do we do need to give his site any
more hits.

3.  I propose that someone who has a copy of the FAQ as it existed before
Nathan took it over, sit down and do a complete forward read, comparing the
old FAQ with the present one, to see exactly how much has been added and
changed.  This is a standard proofreading technique and although it is time
consuming, the results are obvious once it's done.  This is the only way
we're going to know the complete differences between the two without taking
anyone's word for it.

In addition, about a year or so ago I saw the old FAQ (pre-Nathan) on a web
site, so Nathan can not claim that he did the conversion to HTML format.  I
am not sure if it is still there, but I know that I saw this once or twice
and it was on the web when I did a search for "Apple II FAQ".

> 
> 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.  

Agreed.  And if someone was giving me a choice, I'd much prefer to get the
FAQ right here on usenet in plain 'ol text that I don't have to fuddle with
a web browser to print out the way I need.  Given all the traffic and
bottlenecks on the web, web navigation is sometimes more of a hassle and
more time consuming than it's worth.


> 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.

These are fake stubs, not the FAQs.  And Nathan *still* hasn't addressed
why he's keeping so many people off the web site--entire domains like
execpc.

[lurking mode on...]

--bj
Proud user/owner of Apple Computers since 1984
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