srt@CS.UCLA.EDU (05/05/87)
A story my father once told me:
A neophyte farmer purchased a mule, but when he got home and hooked it up
to the plow, the mule refused to move. Baffled, he called his next door
neighbor. The neighbor, a seasoned country boy, came over and inspected
the recalcitrant mule. He looked around the barnyard and found a 2x4,
walked over to the mule and gave it a tremendous blow between the ears.
``First,'' he said, ``you get his attention...''
David Hayes took me to task for not following the protocol for creating
a new newsgroup; like others in this group he apparently doesn't bother
to actually read anything posted here or he would know that I did follow
the protocol - to no effect. However, now that I have your attention,
let me repeat my proposal for comp.sources.apollo:
NAME comp.sources.apollo
TOPIC To be used for distribution of software for Apollo workstations.
MOD? Yes, by srt@ucla, who currently maintains the Rhapsody Archive
of public-domain Apollo software.
ALTERNATIVES?
I've considered using an existing news group, like
comp.sources.misc or news.groups :-). There are several problems
with this:
(a) it seems silly to have two people moderating sources for
the Apollos.
(b) many people uninterested in Apollo software would be forced
to receive it and 'n' through it.
(c) a moderator without an Apollo cannot test or debug submitted
software.
(d) moderators for other sources groups probably don't want all
kinds of strange duties dumped on them.
A mailing list is another possibility. I've been keeping a private
mailing list for the Rhapsody Archive, and it has grown
unreasonable and unreliable. I have difficulty mailing sources
through UUCP and BITNET connections even when individual files
are kept under 32K.
For these reasons I think a new newsgroup is the best solution.
NEED?
I split this into two questions: ``Is there enough Apollo software
to make this viable?'' and ``Are there enough interested readers
in Netland?''
In answer to the first question, the Rhapsody Archive has a fair
number of programs already (several Meg worth) and I get a
submission or two a month, and I expect submissions will increase
as the software gets wider distribution.
In answer to the second question, there is already an active
newsgroup for the Apollo community (mod.computers.apollo) and
approximately 50 sites that receive software in one form or another
from the Rhapsody Archive. I've requested numbers from the
maintainer of the Apollo mailing list and from Brian Reid (for
estimate of readership of mod.computers.apollo) and I'll post that
information here when I receive it, but I think that the need has
already been sufficiently proven. Certainly comp.sources.apollo is
as reasonable as some existing newsgroups, though I realize that
isn't a criterion.
RESPONSES
I've had about 10 responses, all in favor of creating the newsgroup
(but I haven't requested responses from the people reading
mod.computers.apollo). I also had a few responses about my 2x4
tactics; with the exception of Melinda Shore, who didn't realize
that I wasn't really going to keeping posting sources to
news.groups, they all approved. Which goes to show in what high
regard the news adminstrators are held these days. Must be all
those disgruntled mod.recipes readers :-).
--
Scott R. Turner
Moderator, comp.sources.apollo, appearing in news.group
ARPA: srt@ucla
UUCP: ...!{cepu,ihnp4,trwspp,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!srt