werner@ut-ngp.UUCP (Werner Uhrig) (12/04/85)
(I recently saw a badly mangled article again ....)
As much as I benefit of the flood of MAC-related articles here (and given
that I helped start it all), I am very concerned that it may be too much
and cannot be supported much longer by the net, and it's time to call for
all "MACeteers" to find ways to reduce the burden we are imposing on the
net, without losing any of the benefits (I hope, anyway). I think we better
do that ourselves, before folks with less interest in the MAC do it for us !!
If I have to chose, I prefer the posting of executable files over source
code, because it tends to be less volumenous and has the potential of
benefitting more people. I, for one, am not very likely to try out programs
that first need compiling, but I do try to "test-drive" most executables
floating by. And among the people that I pass downloaded stuff to, not one
in twenty is interested in source-code.
Otherwise, I *URGE* that all sources be mailed to INFO-MAC@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA
from where they can be accessed nation/worldwide by users on ARPA/MILNET
from the archives with the FTP-file-transfer program, and by all others
via regular mail by sending a request to INFO-MAC-REQUEST. This has worked
very well over many years for CP/M and MS-DOS code (and much more),
archived many different ARPA-sites.
All major MAC Users Groups have members who, routinely, download from
ARPA and USENET and thus the sources become available to all through
club-released disks and private BBSes.
For those of you who either live overseas, or otherwise in the "computer-woods"
I recommend you link up to one of the larger MAC Users Groups to obtain their
weekly/monthly software disks and newsletters. In my experience, getting
club-disks is certainly less time-consuming (and time is money, after all)
than downloading, and reduces the "sifting" and documenting the "stuff".
To summarize, it's great to benefit from USENET and ARPAnet, but let's not
forget what the main purpose of these computer nets are and what those
who pay the bills want to see achieved here, and while I certainly think
that some of the MAC-activity is related to those goals, too much is not
and we are running the risk of "getting in troubles" for overindulging
on "fringe-benefits" which are neither policed nor sanctioned.
I believe that making a "sincere effort" in moderation is indicated
here and will work in our favor in the long run (for both this particular
interest group and the net in general)
Cheers, ---Werner
{seismo,ihnp4}!ut-sally!ut-ngp!werner
PS: please consult your favorite MAC-magazines for ads by user-groups in
Boston, Berkeley, NY, Washington, Yale, etc.
I welcome your feed-back or questions, and will post summaries or
follow-up answers, if needed.