giguere@aries5.uwaterloo.ca (Eric Giguere) (04/15/90)
Well it's been a while since I've posted anything to the net --- it's been a very busy term for me (nothing like writing a C compiler, a real-time OS kernel and a robot application to keep a CS student busy! "database, what's a database?"). Now that I'm writing my final final exams (yes, sooner or later we are forced to join the Real World (tm)) I find that I have the time to start thinking about what I want to do with my Amiga, where the Amiga is going, etc. There are times when I wonder if we should set up a set of comp.sys.*.whine newsgroups. I mean, lately things in c.s.a have REALLY been bad. And somehow I suspect that a comp.sys.amiga.whine group would have twice the volume of any other *.whine groups. Someone in the mac group said that he noticed that every so often he would see letters in computer mags from whining Amiga users complaining about lack of coverage for their poor besotted computer. Unfortunately this is quite true --- I myself have noticed this. People also complain about the "fluff" content of the average Amiga magazine. Perhaps things would be clearer if most people realized the following simple facts: 1. The Amiga is a bit player. Thus a. there is a larger audience for PC and Mac articles and ADVERTISING b. Amiga-oriented mags don't pay as much for articles or tend to go bankrupt 2. Amiga users have a bad rep among most professional computer writers. Amiga users tend to be regarded as a bunch of whiners who will either flame you for you lack of Amiga coverage or criticize you about what you say about the Amiga. Now Fact 1 is simply a restatement of obvious market forces and there's little we can do to directly influence this other than to support both our machine and its commercial software developers. Fact 2 IS something we have to work on as a group, though I'm not sure we can ever be rid of the bad reputation. It's too bad. I mean, I've talked to writers who LIKE the Amiga but due to simple economics and their dislike of abuse will avoid writing about it and stick to MS-DOS, OS/2 and Macintosh stuff. Actually I found myself in a similar situation with my GUI article in this month's Computer Language. I wanted to mention the Amiga but almost didn't because I wasn't sure it was of any interest to CL's readers and that I'd get royally flamed for the things that I said. As it is, I put the Amiga in and I haven't (yet?) been flamed. So I guess I won that gamble. But it SHOULDN'T be a gamble! So what does this come down to? Very simple, actually. Before you post something to an Amiga group, ask yourself this question: Am I posting a whine or contructive criticism? Let's try to cut down on the former, shall we? And how about cutting out the cross-postings? No use airing our dirty laundry in someone else's backyard. -- Eric Giguere 268 Phillip St #CL-46 C'est un nom francais, bien sur Waterloo, Ontario N2L 6G9 Bitnet : GIGUERE at WATCSG (519) 746-6565 Internet: giguere@aries5.UWaterloo.ca "Nothing but urges from HELL!!"