Re: KFest 2006 report

["Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com>]

Eric Shepherd wrote:
> On 2006-07-30 23:35:52 -0400, "Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com> said:
>
> > Just as it would be silly to restrict a factory that makes Christmas
> > tree lights to using them to light the factory, thinking of Apple II
> > services as valuable just because they are accessible to Apple II
> > computers is a fallacy.
>
> OK, I wasn't really clear with what I meant before. :)
>
> What I mean is that while newsgroups and IRC and web boards and web
> chat doohickeys are cool, having all-text forums is a very beneficial
> thing, which is why I set them up in the first place.
>
> It'd be easy to say, "csa2 and an IRC room" or "let's use Google Groups
> and a web chat site", but the main impetus to creating the
> Syndicomm/A2Central.com board, chat room, etc, was to provide a system
> that people could access from their Apple II.
>
> If that weren't important to me, I'd not have bothered to write all
> that code (well, wouldn't have bothered to nudge Dave Miller to write
> all that code, since he did most of it....).  Anyway, if we didn't have
> the text interface stuff to worry about, having free boards and web
> would be pretty trivial to set up, since there are lots of services
> that offer those things free or nearly so.
>
> But I like having the text interface available -- being able to access
> a service about the Apple II using an Apple II appeals to me, even
> though I don't do it very often myself.  I know some people do though.
>
> Anyway, just my thoughts on it. :)

I understand--but in my mind, the value is in the discourse among
folks thinking about the Apple II, not in how it's accessed.

-michael