craig@unicus.UUCP (Craig D. Hubley) (02/03/88)
Well, once again lots of comp.sys groups have been inundated with another
inane shareware/copyright/stealing/comparisons with other industries debate.
Of course, we all know that the following solutions apply:
Teach people to edit the newgroup line. Flame those that don't.
Teach people to edit the followups line. Flame those that don't.
Teach people to edit the subject line so that if an interesting
splinter comes off a boring debate, it doesn't get lost
in the noise. Flame those that don't.
Teach people to flame by mail. Flame those that don't. By mail.
But it seems to me that these debates start out with a question of general
interest, accordingly cross-posted to one or more comp.sys groups, and
then becomes a freewheeling flaming free-for-all where everyone gets their
two cents in. No one can really suggest a better place for it to go.
What's lacking is a comp.industry newsgroup. My list says no such thing
presently exists. There's a lot of adding groups like `comp.software-eng'
and `comp.cog-eng' and suggestions for other such groups about technical
and theoretical issues, but what's being discussed here is the COMPUTER
INDUSTRY and lack of a central place for such discussions is a problem.
I hereby suggest that a group `comp.industry' be mandated to contain:
All discussions of copyright
All discussions of legal issues as applied to this industry.
including copyright
including piracy
All discussions of shareware
All discussions of piracy
All discussions of pricing and distribution issues.
including shareware
including affects of piracy
All discussions of the future of the INDUSTRY,
not of its affects on society or on technical issues.
Financial information on companies in the industry
stock prices
investor confidence
Other (working environment, etc.) issues relating to the industry
as a whole. Not technical issues, but industrial issues.
and to NOT contain:
Flames regarding particular companies (belong in appropriate
comp.sys group, since they usually apply to a product)
Technical details of copy protection on any particular machine,
unless supporting a more general point.
Anything specific to any manufacturer or product, that is,
something that doesn't meaningfully apply to the industry.
I think this would cut a lot of crap out of a lot of groups, and give
some important but unanchored discussions a place to grow. I'm tempted
to suggest subgroups comp.industry.piracy and comp.industry.philosophy
or comp.industry.policies right off the bat, but that's jumping the gun.
Let's see if anyone else has any ideas.
I, for one, would like to see such a group moderated but with an
unmoderated subgroup for those who can't control themselves, lest
this stuff continue to be spread everywhere.
I'm not volunteering to officially collect votes yet, let's discuss it first.
Craig Hubley, Unicus Corporation, Toronto, Ont.
craig@Unicus.COM (Internet)
{uunet!mnetor, utzoo!utcsri}!unicus!craig (dumb uucp)
mnetor!unicus!craig@uunet.uu.net (dumb arpa)
heiby@mcdchg.UUCP (Ron Heiby) (02/06/88)
Sounds to me like if it isn't moderated, then it should be under "talk". -- Ron Heiby, heiby@mcdchg.UUCP Moderator: comp.newprod & comp.unix "Intel architectures build character."