DING DING! Back to your corners... WAS: Re: Irreverence to irrelevance

From: Wirehead Prime <wirehead_at_retrocomputing.com>
Date: Wed Mar 18 13:54:53 1998

Now, you're a guy with a balanced attitude. Good post.

You're right. The list isn't going anywhere. I like everyone here and
think the list is wonderful (with one exception). This list has some of
the most intelligent, motivated, interesting people I've ever seen.
I sit in awe of some of you folks that collect the really big iron or
those of you that seem to come up with cool computer after cool computer.
I really do love this list. I left the list for two months there in
December and January due primarily to my last altercation with you know who.
But I came back because everyone else makes up for it a million times over.

And, come on, even the off-topic stuff isn't THAT off-topic! In Usenet,
in every newsgroup you get spam about this or that goofy product or
postings like "Stop the War in Iraq". At least our off-topic posts are
still generally about computers.

To be honest, having seen some of the postings today...I feel a bit like
I'm shooting ducks in the barrel. When you accuse someone of foul
language and they respond with foul language...well, what am I supposed
to do with that? If everything was that easy, we wouldn't even need
juries...everyone would just walk in and, in response to the accusation
of murder, run at the judge with a knife and scream, "I'm gonna kill you!"

I've gotten several private emails from individuals praising me and
several more suggesting that what I'm doing is pointless even though they
dont' disagree with me in principle and a few more saying they understand
my viewpoint but disagree with my approach...but nobody's sent me an
email saying "Leave Sam alone! He's a nice guy and he's completely right
and you're completely wrong to be angry about his behavior!"

Basically, today has shown me that I'm preaching to the choir. I didn't
realize it until now I guess. I guess I was concerned that his idea of
shutting down the list and taking control of it might have a following I
hadn't detected but that's obviously not the case.

Clearly most people are happy with the group
and I see no reason that it won't continue for a long, LONG time to come.
We're a LONG way from being as bad as Usenet in terms of off-topic postings!
So rather than trying to trash what works we should count our blessings I
think. But it's obvious that nobody wants to trash this group despite
the rantings of someone who's demonstrated better than I possibly could
where the truth really lay.

I think this list is GREAT and love the conversations, off-topic or
on-topic. I may delete 50 messages but only because I'm interested in
something else not because I find them offensive or annoying.

Anthony Clifton - Wirehead

PS: I didn't think my logic probe questions were off-topic since they
related DIRECTLY to the repair of a truly classic machine...an SWTPC 6800
Micro circa 1975. Not that you were accusing me but I don't want you to
think that it was off-topic.

 On Wed, 18 Mar 1998, Les Berry wrote:

>
> I think we all need to take a step back, grab a few drinks, and try and
> look at what's going on here.
>
> So far, everyone has had some valid points. If we interpret the FAQ
> literally than perhaps Sam is right. I would tend to believe, however,
> that Bill Whitson's original idea was to have "liberal" restrictions on
> the group so as to perpetuate discussion of "classic" computers. Not all
Received on Wed Mar 18 1998 - 13:54:53 GMT