Thinning the heard

From: John Chris Wren <jcwren_at_jcwren.com>
Date: Thu Mar 7 23:22:14 2002

        I can't say that I completely agree that FCFS is always fair. Some of us
live in front of our computers, and run mail checking every 3 minutes. Some
people have jobs that don't permit them to check their email more often,
such as the guy at the Circle-K, people who are on the road a lot during the
day, etc. And there's the whole issue of mailserver latency, something not
all of us have control over. It seems to take my messages over an hour
before I see them, whereas on a Yahoo! message board I use, they show up in
5 or 6 minutes.

        I would think that a lottery system would be more fair. Computer generate
a number, give anyone that's interested 48 hours to reply with a number, and
whomever gets closest with going over wins. Any other equally arbitrary
rule would work as well. An enterprising individual could even set up a web
page to help manage this.

        --John

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org
> [mailto:owner-classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of Richard Erlacher
> Sent: Thursday, March 07, 2002 23:24 PM
> To: classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org
> Subject: Re: Thinning the heard
>
>
> I have to agree with this FCFS policy. I've given away a few
> things, mostly
> lighter-weight stuff than complete machines, for sure, but
> nevertheless got
> "yelled" at because I had comitted to give someone something on
> that basis by
> somoeone who didn't feel it necessary to check his email over the weekend.
>
> My email is updated every few hours when I'm not around and certainly more
> often when I am. Sometimes I choose not to get into it, but if I miss
> something, it's on me, and not the sender.
>
> Dick
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jeffrey S. Sharp" <jss_at_subatomix.com>
> To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
> Sent: Thursday, March 07, 2002 8:51 PM
> Subject: Re: Thinning the heard
>
>
> > On Thu, 7 Mar 2002, Torquil MacCorkle III wrote:
> >
> > > I think it is very nice of you to give away machines like this. I was
> > > just wondering if you'd be willing to, if you do this again, give me
> > > first dibs on the next complete machine you give away?
> >
> > I cannot speak for Allison, but if I the above message were directed to
> > me, I would ask you politely to stop being greedy and to check
> your email
> > more often.
> >
> > Our traditional methods (usually FCFS) for redistributing goods are fair
> > and sufficient; we ought not to get into the practice of preemptive
> > first-dibbing.
> >
> > --
> > Jeffrey S. Sharp
> > jss_at_subatomix.com
> >
> >
>
>
Received on Thu Mar 07 2002 - 23:22:14 GMT