Re: My favorite Apple II

["Sean Fahey" <a2fan@hotmail.com>]

"PZ" <skierpaul@yahoo.com> wrote in message
1115961587.164789.106470@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com">news:1115961587.164789.106470@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

> Funny, I've been visiting A2 central since it came online and it always
> seemed to me that it was the same entity .  So if they're different
> entities, why doesn't A2 central have A2 message boards available to
> the general public?  It seems that there's a proliferation of Web based
> Bulletin board software out there these days.  The overhead certainly
> isn't that high.  You'd think that a place which markets itself as a
> hub of A2 news would certainly have something of this sort.  Or is
> there an alterior motive to NOT have a service like this available on
> A2 central?  Like maybe to get people pay for a different entity....
> C'mon, GET REAL!

OK, I'll be real. First, my disclaimers - I'm somewhat affiliated with A2C
and I'm a paying member of Syndicomm. And I personally know most the people
involved in either running of the site or who are members of the Syndicomm
community because many happen to also go to KFest.


I'm not aware of any alterior... or ulterior motives for that matter that
you're hinting at. For those of us who were there at the beginning (and
personally know the people running the A2C and Syndicomm sites) there isn't
any confusion. It may seem like a blurry line but you'd probably have to
know the background of how the sites got started to understand the
difference. Sheppy has said over and over, A2C isn't Syndicomm - and being
the modest fellow that he is, he has never aspired to be the center of the
Apple II Universe. Sheppy would like to see more diversity in the Apple II
community, not less.

Sheppy just wanted to run a news site about the Apple II.... and then Gary
Utter came along. Ah, but that's skipping ahead.

A2Central is a news and links portal (using Geeklog), so it's more of a
BLOG. I know it's capable of supporting comments to stories (which as you
know really aren't the same as message forums), but I have to assume the
reason comments are turned off is because Sheppy has a low tolerance for
assholes. And you know, someone is always out there wearing their ass-clown
hat and making mischief. So, A2C is kinda like Slashdot for Apple II lovers,
without the high signal to noise ratio comments section. No "first post" or
goatse.cx crap.

Syndicomm is the online forums, file libraries, etc, web store - it's
membership fee's and store sales go to defray the cost of the broadband and
hardware required to run a friendly and well provisioned system. I can't
remember if it emulates Delphi or GEnie, but the idea was to provide the
long time users of those systems a feeling of "home" and make it easier to
transition them. Syndicomm, back in the GEnie and then later, Delphi days
used to be operated by Gary Utter (who sadly passed away a few years ago and
is greatly missed). Gary passed the torch to Sheppy, because he felt Sheppy
had the resources and fortitude to keep Syndicomm going, and they both
realized that with Delphi withdrawing telnet support, a lot of Apple II
people were going to be SOL. So, Sheppy started his own mini-information
service that's free of corporate swings, in your face advertising, and
hopefully potty-mouth assholes. It was time for Syndicomm to control it's
own destiny.

My question to your question is, why do you feel A2C should provide message
forums? As far as I know, forums were never intended - it was going to be a
portal for news and links to other sites of Apple II interest.