On/OffTopic criteria (was: RE: Dec or Digital Networking)

From: Fred N. van Kempen <waltje_at_pdp11.nl>
Date: Thu Sep 4 08:40:01 2003

Bah.. people, try to keep subjects sane :)

> Has anyone actually tried to scale "on-topic" into something we can wrap our
> arms around? Once upon a time, I was told that any platform carrying a
> version of Windows was off topic. What of my DEC SL486DX with DOS 5.0,
> WIndows 3.1 and Office 4.0? The DEC manufacturer's tag clearly shows a
> manufacture date of 1991 (so did some of the files I cleaned out of it...).
> A DEC recovery service tag also clearly shows a complete overhaul in 1993.
> Is it on-topic by year of manufacture, but off-topic because of its onboard
> applications? What applies? What doesn't?

Hmm.. or, how about selecting on the basis of things still being in
active production or not? The SL486DX in your example might not fit
the 10-year rule, but since it is no longer in production (read: EOL,
EOP), it "probably" will fit the "no longer supported, probably still
used, and if interesting to someone, probably collected by someone"
rule, making it a ClassicCmp issue..

--f
Received on Thu Sep 04 2003 - 08:40:01 BST