wampler@unmvax.UUCP (Bruce Wampler) (02/09/86)
This is about my recent announcement about the availability of
a TI 9900 cross assembler.
**** FLAME ON! ****
I'm so po'ed about some mail I got that I feel compelled to tell
tell whole net. There is no net.sources.discussion, so I'm posting to
net.sources. Any MORE flames about that to /dev/null!
I received two rather terse and rude pieces of mail from a
couple of twits who consider themselves some sort of net secret police
informing me that my announcement was inappropriate for net.sources.
In case you missed the original announcement, I announced that SOURCE
code for a cross assembler for a TI-9900 was available.
Apparently these little Hitlers would have me post 100K or so
bytes of source code to the entire net for the benefit of maybe 10 or
20 users. That would have been ok - it was source itself. But announce
that the source is available for direct mailing, saving many $$$'s in
phone bills by mailing directly to the interested parties - that's
inappropriate use of net.sources. Well, I think these twits who tell
me how to behave are inappropriate to net.sources. I won't tell who
they are, but no doubt they will flame me again.
Having been flamed once, I was a bit reluctant to post again,
but it really makes me MAD. In light of all the recent postings of
copyright discussions, and the multitudes of "I didn't get part x
of something", simply announcing availability of source seems
perfectly appropriate.
**** FLAME OFF ****
Having been the victim of two bad experiences of posting to
net.sources (I posted TVX, and the assembler announcement), I feel
I am qualified to submit the following suggestions so that others
may avoid some of my trauma.
1. If your source is really likely to be useful to a lot
of people, post to mod.sources.
2. If you have some relatively short code that might be
useful to a fair number of people, then net.souces seems fine.
3. If you have something long that is likely to be useful
to only a few people (like a 9900 cross assembler), I think it is
quite appropriate to announce you have the source, and will either
post or mail depending on the number of replies. I've read in some
group that the cutoff is either around 20 or 100, depending on whose
study you believe - if you have more than 20 (or 100, maybe someone
knows the real number) interested sites, then post, otherwise mail
directly. If you announce in this manner, be prepared for nasty mail
from the secret police. I say ignore it. Do what is RIGHT, and don't
be afraid of some twits.
4. In spite of all these cautions, please keep submitting
sources! If you help anyone else, even a little, it is worth
all the trouble with flaky net software and flames from the secret
police. You are really are performing a service.
5. For all the little Hitlers out there: maybe we need
something MORE than net.sources, net.sources.bugs, and net.sources.wanted.
There seems to be real need for a place to post to discuss things
about net.sources, and .bugs and .wanted don't fit the bill.
We need net.sources.d or something like that. Flaming people
is NOT the answer.
--
Dr. Bruce E. Wampler
University of New Mexico
Department of Computer Science
Albuquerque, NM 87131
..{ucbvax | seismo!gatech | ihnp4!lanl}!unmvax!wamplertwb@hoqax.UUCP (BEATTIE) (02/11/86)
> > 1. If your source is really likely to be useful to a lot > of people, post to mod.sources. > Unfortunately, this site doesn't get mod.sources and neither does the site that feeds us. Which (of course) kind of defeats the purpose of mod.sources. --- Tom. T.W. Beattie ...!{ihnp4 | hou2g | allegra | ulysses}!hoqax!twb
levy@ttrdc.UUCP (Daniel R. Levy) (02/12/86)
<Oh oh here it comes. Watch out boy, it'll chew you up! \ Oh oh here it comes. The LINE EATER! [Line eater]> In article <233@hoqax.UUCP>, twb@hoqax.UUCP (BEATTIE) writes: >> 1. If your source is really likely to be useful to a lot >> of people, post to mod.sources. >Unfortunately, this site doesn't get mod.sources and neither does >the site that feeds us. >Which (of course) kind of defeats the purpose of mod.sources. >Tom. >T.W. Beattie >...!{ihnp4 | hou2g | allegra | ulysses}!hoqax!twb Weeell.. it might be a good idea to post a brief message in net.sources to the effect that you have sent your masterpiece to mod.sources, since people can always mail a request to mod.sources to get a copy of something that has been there, even if the mod.sources group doesn't get to them as a news group. -- ------------------------------- Disclaimer: The views contained herein are | dan levy | yvel nad | my own and are not at all those of my em- | an engihacker @ | ployer or the administrator of any computer | at&t computer systems division | upon which I may hack. | skokie, illinois | -------------------------------- Path: ..!{akgua,homxb,ihnp4,ltuxa,mvuxa, vax135}!ttrdc!levy
kimcm@diku.UUCP (02/14/86)
In article <1001@unmvax.UUCP> wampler@unmvax.UUCP writes: > 5. For all the little Hitlers out there: maybe we need >something MORE than net.sources, net.sources.bugs, and net.sources.wanted. >There seems to be real need for a place to post to discuss things >about net.sources, and .bugs and .wanted don't fit the bill. >We need net.sources.d or something like that. Flaming people >is NOT the answer. Well I support of a newsgroup for discussion of things related to Public Domain Software. Let's create net.sources.d or net.pd (pd = public domain) and hope all this trash get's out of this newsgroup (This message (and followups) included). BTW: Don't let flames burn you. Calling each other names don't make the situation any better. Kim Chr. Madsen
bd@hpda.UUCP (Bob Desinger) (02/14/86)
In article <233@hoqax.UUCP>, Tom Beattie writes: > Unfortunately, this site doesn't get mod.sources and neither does > the site that feeds us. > Which (of course) kind of defeats the purpose of mod.sources. ...So immediately the question springs to mind, "If your site gets net.sources, why doesn't it get mod.sources too?" The signal-to-noise ratio seems much better in mod.sources, although I enjoy both net.sources and mod.sources. (Where is net.sources.d when we need it?) -- Bob Desinger
phil@amdcad.UUCP (Phil Ngai) (02/17/86)
In article <1333@hpda.UUCP> bd@hpda.UUCP (Bob Desinger) writes: >In article <233@hoqax.UUCP>, Tom Beattie writes: >> Unfortunately, this site doesn't get mod.sources and neither does >> the site that feeds us. >> Which (of course) kind of defeats the purpose of mod.sources. > >...So immediately the question springs to mind, "If your site gets >net.sources, why doesn't it get mod.sources too?" The signal-to-noise >ratio seems much better in mod.sources, although I enjoy both net.sources >and mod.sources. Because it's a Bell Labs site and they're too busy selling their dinette sets to Europe. (I used to believe posting junk articles like this one to net.sources was a sin but now I'm hoping it will be the straw that breaks the camel's back and gets net.sources cancelled.) -- Real men don't have answering machines. Phil Ngai +1 408 749 5720 UUCP: {ucbvax,decwrl,ihnp4,allegra}!amdcad!phil ARPA: amdcad!phil@decwrl.dec.com
twb@hoqax.UUCP (BEATTIE) (02/18/86)
> In article <1333@hpda.UUCP> bd@hpda.UUCP (Bob Desinger) writes: > >In article <233@hoqax.UUCP>, Tom Beattie writes: > >> Unfortunately, this site doesn't get mod.sources and neither does > >> the site that feeds us. > >> Which (of course) kind of defeats the purpose of mod.sources. It turns out that houxm DOES have mod.sources and hoqam and hoqax will soon have it, as well as some other mod groups. Thanks to all who helped. -- Tom. hoqax!twb
phil@amdcad.UUCP (Phil Ngai) (02/19/86)
In article <238@hoqax.UUCP> twb@hoqax.UUCP (BEATTIE) writes: >It turns out that houxm DOES have mod.sources and hoqam and hoqax >will soon have it, as well as some other mod groups. What does this mean? Is there something tricky about reading the mod groups that should be included in the general instructions to users? I've never had trouble accessing them using "rn" but maybe some of the other news reading programs make it harder? -- Real men don't have answering machines. Phil Ngai +1 408 749 5720 UUCP: {ucbvax,decwrl,ihnp4,allegra}!amdcad!phil ARPA: amdcad!phil@decwrl.dec.com