karl@sugar.UUCP (Karl Lehenbauer) (01/16/88)
There has been an ongoing "net war" between a handful of vocal Atari ST and
Amiga people. It heats up once in a while, with a flurry of virulent
postings, then cools down, then heats up again. After it's heated up, a
handful of people post about what a waste of time and/or net resources it is.
I'd like to speak for a moment in defense of the "war."
First of all, concern about the wasting of net bandwidth are overblown.
"You're wasting net bandwidth" is the bogeyman on usenet, isn't it? I
speculate that most of the people on the net, including those who post
messages like that pay nothing for net access. (No tons o' followups from
the exceptions, please) I'd estimate the ST/Amiga war consumes no more
than 50k/month, trivial when compared to total traffic on comp.*.amiga
and comp.*.atari.st and supertrivial when compared to total net traffic.
Second of all, it's not really hurting anybody, at least not much. The
people who could conceivably claim they've been harmed by the war fall
into three categories: those who've had their feelings hurt because
their computers were criticized, those who've had their feelings hurt
because they were flamed and those who would rather not see the material.
The first group need to get tough. Flame victims have some legitimate
grievance. Usenet postings are all too often personally insulting, but
that's hardly the exclusive province of the Amiga and ST groups. As for
the inconvenience caused for those who don't want to read the stuff, well,
it's really not all that much. ('though you'd never know it from some of the
followups.) I mean, hit 'N' if you don't want to read it. ("vn" users have
an even easier time of it.)
Third of all, and in refutation of the second most common complaint about
the war, something good can come of it. For example, David Beckemeyer is
seriously considering placing his Atari ST multitasking C shell in the public
domain, partially as a result of the Amiga/ST flame wars.
And finally, it's entertaining. Yes, I have to admit that I actually
enjoy reading the flames. I like watching the ST guys get flayed :-) :-) :-)
It breaks up the monotony of all of the useful and informative Amiga messages
from the likes of Chuck, Fred, Bryce, Leo, George, Carolyn, Andy, Peter et al...
can't speak for the ST camp, but hey.
--
..!uunet!nuchat!sugar!karl, Unix BBS (713) 933-2440cthulhu@athena.mit.edu (Jim Reich) (02/04/88)
In article <1401@sugar.UUCP> karl@sugar.UUCP (Karl Lehenbauer) writes: >handful of people post about what a waste of time and/or net resources it is. True, only a handful flame, many others merely unsubscribe or stop reading netnews altogether! Others, like me, sit back and wish it would stop, but don't want to add to the waste of space and time by complaining. However, I find it hard to believe that anyone is actually in favor of the incredible, dull repetition of arguments, personal attacks and idiotic assertions common to both sides of these wars! >First of all, concern about the wasting of net bandwidth are overblown. True, it's not actual net bandwidth that concerns most of us -- in comparison to some of the bizarre things wandering the net, this stuff isn't so big. It's the consumption of NET READER BANDWIDTH that does it. I am getting over 350 messages a day from four or five groups alone, and have no time to read 50 articles on why software piracy is bad/good, why it is bad to have multitasking or crossposted light bulb jokes and the ensuing complaints! Going away for a weekend or two is a downright scary concept -- I'll never have time to catch up and sift the few good messages out of the heaps of crud!!! I generally don't like moderated groups as they lose the quality of a discussion, but they are starting to look better and better as the percentage of net.bull goes up. >I mean, hit 'N' if you don't want to read it. ("vn" users have >an even easier time of it.) Fine, but when you have to hit N more often than not, something is wrong! >It breaks up the monotony of all of the useful and informative Amiga messages >from the likes of Chuck, Fred, Bryce, Leo, George, Carolyn, Andy, Peter et al Can't believe this -- the monotony of useful and informative messages!?!?!?!?!! Aieee! Give me more monotony, give me more boredom! Useful messages? Perish the thought! -- Jim