Re: [NTLK] Fighting Complacency within the Newton Community

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On Jul 30, 2006, at 21.37, MKow1234@aol.com wrote:

> Hmm... Let's see... I managed to get a few admitted lurkers to
> actually post
> something! That's an accomplishment right there! :O)

Not really. I'm a lurker myself. I tend not to post because I have
nothing worthwhile to add.

>
> It's funny how my posting, borne out of a desire to see more folks
> get off
> their @$$e$ to contribute something -- anything -- suddenly is
> construed by
> other members as a neo-Nazi threat to the bulletin board!

That's because this *isn't* a bulletin board. It's a mailing list.
It's far more linear.

> Interesting... Oh yes, by all means, let's just be a bunch of
> unorganized people who happen to use
> the same computing device...

Who said we had to be organized? That's one of the wonderful things
about these communities: low prerequisites to join, but the benefits
are great. I contribute when I can, because I like to help others,
not because I want to fill some kind of artificial quota.

> No sense in actually setting any kind of short or
> long-range objectives for the Community. That would just make it
> seem like we
> had a sense of direction, and God forbid that we should have an
> agenda!

Why would we want an agenda? "Newton OS to control globe by 2025"?
What goals could we set?! This is pretty much a help and
informational mailing list, adding an agenda wouldn't help that.

> What I find the MOST interesting is that one would have to go
> pretty far back
> in the archives to find some of these people posting about another
> topic!
> Very interesting...

What "another topic?" The topic is anything running a version of
Newton OS. We try to stay on-topic.

> Well, I tried to get some of these folks off of their @$$e$.

Your attempt at censorship really isn't impressive, so please stop.
Just because you replace an "a" with an "@" and a "s" with a "$"
doesn't make it any less a swear word, so just using a replacement
cypher doesn't lessen its impact, and actually makes you seem less
mature. Not trying to insult you or anything, just trying to help you
with your presentation.

> Guess that makes
> me evil in the eyes of some Apple-wielding lunatic fringe types...

No, we're just disagreeing with you. We have that right. Please stop
putting words in our mouths.

> It's not
> like I haven't shown my good intentions toward the Community half
> a hundred
> times in the past few years... I wonder what, if anything, some of
> these folks
> have contributed? Oh, and to the one extreme dumb@$$, I can't help
> what tag
> line my ISP puts in my e-mailed posting; it's not secret plot to
> push my ISP on
> you...

No, but you've sent about five or so messages that contained nothing
but that line. Besides, one person asked *if* you could turn it off,
not "turn it off or be banned"

> Okay folks, the show's over... nothing more to see here...

Not yet.

> We now return to
> our same old revolving door discussions of ancient Newton review
> articles, 'How
> to sync with Apple OS whatever', Steve Jobs, Hiroshi drivers, and
> how to
> avoid spending fifteen dollars for a sync cable. Yawn...

That's kind of the idea: discussion. What you want is a central
repository of knowledge, right? A mailing list is a poor format to
put that in. A Wiki is better suited to that. A Wiki for Newton
information already exists. There are several large informational
repositories. To put your style of requisites on such a resource
would defeat the purpose of its existence, since, after a while, the
majority of useful knowledge would be expended. Now, along comes Mr.
Foo Bar. Mr. Bar has a question, but knows very little about the
Newton. Under your system, he is required to contribute. However,
good 'ol Foo is out of luck, since everything he knows has already
been contributed! What is he to do? Besides, haven't you ever heard
the old expression "Information wants to be free"? In that type of
system, we might as well charge an access fee.

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