karl@ddsw1.UUCP (Karl Denninger) (01/09/88)
In article <110@telebit.UUCP> root@telebit.UUCP (Super user) writes: >It seems natural that those of us at Telebit tech >support to use the net to disseminate configuration >information or other timly pieces of info that could >simplify use of TrailBlazers. Agreed. The net (as a resource, not as an entity as we currently have it) is a very good tool to use for product support. It reaches a lot of people (many of who do not have your product but might want it), and is in other ways nearly ideal for a company selling computer products. >I realize we may tiptoe a bit close to netiquette >violations and as a result Telebit employees have >not participated in netnews discussions. Yep. In fact, I've been accused of violating etiquette guidelines in 'alt' (!) for posting shareware created here. I shudder at the thought of the amount of fire that would appear in my mailbox were we to post anything connected with our commercial entities! (in other than the 'comp.newprod' area, of course, which is moderated) >We are preparing lists of these users, setup guides, >and in general would like to serve as an information >clearing house for issues related to the use of >TrailBlazer Modems. Good! We certainly would like to do the same for our products and service offerings :-) Any manufacturer or vendor who's going to claim to provide 'support' almost has to do these things. >I note newsgroups related to specific vendor's >products and maybe the creation of such a group >for TrailBlazer issues in appropriate. > >We genuinely seek a medium to best support USENET >TrailBlazer users. We do not yet profess to be >experts in the ways of the net and appeal to the >community at large to provide suggestions. It seems to me that there is a simple solution to this problem, one which I have faced myself here at MCS. We also provide hardware and software which is of potential interest to net users. The solution was proposed elsewhere; and it's a good one. Simply create another top-level distribution much as we have done for 'pubnet' here at 'ddsw1' and other places; this distribution would be specifically for the purpose of product support and would not be a part of the normal USENET. In other words, you would have to go to some trouble to get a feed for it; but since every site would know in advance that it these groups are specifically for commercial notices and support, there would be no complaints. Also, those companies participating would of course want to see sites carry it; thus we would (as participants) have a vested interest in finding people feeds for these groups, and convincing companies and individuals to use it. The suggesting has been 'second'ed by another fellow net-user; I'm now putting my foot in my mouth (oops, my foot forward :-) and offering to begin such a distribution and help coordinate the propagation of it. I suggest a top-level name of 'commercial', which identifies for any and all to see just what kinds of things one would find inside. Subdivisions might be appropriate; for example, 'commercial.modems.telebit' could be the telebit group. As this topic is not really relavent to that part of the net which does not wish to receive (or transmit) this information I have redirected followups to myself at 'ddsw1'. The best means for seeing if this is workable is to get some feel as to how many commercial (or just interested) sites would like to participate. I would think that there is no need to limit sites in any particular way other than that they understand that commercial material *will* appear in this area. For this reason, if you wish to support (or decry) such an idea, please respond to me here. I will, of course followup to the net if/when the response warrants. -- Karl Denninger | Data: +1 312 566-8912 Macro Computer Solutions, Inc. | Voice: +1 312 566-8910 ...ihnp4!ddsw1!karl | "Quality solutions for work or play"