lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein) (01/14/85)
I intend for this to be my last message (other than status reports) regarding Stargate for awhile. The issues of editing and screening (which some are still insisting on calling "censorship," but I'm not interested in linguistic battles right now) are important, but right now I need to spend my time trying to make this EXPERIMENT WORK. And it is JUST AN EXPERIMENT. You know, bubbling test tubes and sparks and groans from deep within the Vortex "R&D labs." Not a service. Not a product. An experiment. I am spending a lot of time working to try make a demo happen at Dallas in about 10 days, and I just don't have time to keep arguing future history right now. Many people have suggested to me that I simply ignore the arguing for now and proceed with the work, and I'm going to TRY take their advice for awhile. We'll have plenty of time later to kick and scream and gouge each other's eyes out if that's what some of you *really* want to do. But not right now. Remember when Steve Woods said that only a damn fool would send unscreened materials through a fully operating Stargate service? Well, I'm not a fool. I have no intention of getting myself into legal entanglements over a project that was (a) designed to help people, not hurt them, and (b) is a volunteer effort on my part. If there are going to be endless problems with all this stuff, you can bet that someone else will be running the service, and I'll have nothing whatever to do with it from an operational standpoint. I really don't need the hassles, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let myself get shoved into a position where the hassle factor outweighs the good I thought I was attempting to do. I am, in cooperation with Usenix, simply conducting an experiment, and for all I know it may never get beyond that stage. My crystal ball needs batteries so my ability to predict the future is somewhat limited just now, and speculation beyond the experimental stage, at this time, is just that: speculation. Assuming that the dish people can get a clear shot at the "bird" from the hotel, we will hopefully have a demo on the afternoon of Thursday, January 24th. Some sample text messages are now flowing through the system on a repeating basis, without any obvious technical problems. So from a technical standpoint, we are in pretty good shape for this early in the game. I may sound a bit cranky in this message, but I must admit I'm getting close to the end of my rope when it comes to all this early arguing. The experiment continues, but I am made of flesh and blood, not stone. Please try to keep that in mind. I'd appreciate it. Thanks. --Lauren--