 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group CPU (Club President's Update) Colin Lovitt colinl@melbpc.org.au |
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It's been a most gratifying month around Melb PC. Barry McMenomy and Allan Michelmore have returned breathlessly from Atlanta and other US environs with plans for a 50-line BBS, running under OS/2 and fully supported by their brand new friends at IBM. Software obtained, generally free-of-charge, and contacts made, augur well for the future of our popular board. Even now, with an 18-line board boasting hundreds of message areas and gigabytes of files, we are unable to service all the people all the time with the current setup. The new BBS software can be tested in the background and implemented only when all is in place. The trip looks to have been a resounding success.
In the meantime, a new bulk modem offer appears in these pages. I ran into several people at the last monthly meeting who were sweating on the next deal. Take advantage of it. It will mean that you will also have a wealth of other Maestro users on the BBS if you have a query.
Wanted - Secretary of Melb PC
Melb PC Secretary, Geoff Lewis has been transferred in his work to the Asian region, leaving us sans-Secretary. The role involves keeping minutes, maintaining a register of members, acting as Public Officer of the Group, overseeing office procedures, acting as the link between committee and office, and other typical duties. The Secretary is a member of the Executive of the Group and would be required to attend at least two meetings per month. In addition, he/she would ordinarily be expected to visit the office exercising a supervisory role. Only those with the necessary skills and time available should hold the position, having the experience in office procedures and with a commitment to Melb PC's future. Exciting times are ahead, so if you reckon you can do the job, please give me a call.
Pharmacy College
The new monthly meeting venue was well-received with only a few minor hiccups regarding sound. I liked the office setup at the back of the hall and the cafeteria is a beauty. I hear that we may be WAFFLE-ing there shortly. Congratulations to Ray Beatty and the office staff and volunteers who ensured the smooth transition.
Membership
Numbers now exceed 7,500 and continue to rise. This is despite the decision not to run a stand at PC94 due to the avarice of the organizers. The high costs of last year and the relatively poor return led to a determination not to throw money away in the same manner again. New members are joining at Swap Meets, and on the BBS in droves. A glance at the responses to the survey indicates a degree of satisfaction among the members which is gratifying to the many who contribute to the work of the Group - very pleasing indeed. But we know that there is still room for considerable improvement and survey results should pinpoint these areas.
The 1994 Members' Survey
Responses have literally poured in, rewarding those who worked to devise a comprehensive, searching set of interrogatories. Step One was designing such a survey; Step Two - obtaining a highly representative sample; Step Three is now underway - the keying in of the data. Gary Taig has devised a "quick and dirty" program to facilitate this and 20 or more members have kindly volunteered to enter responses. My thanks to them and their generosity. It is what a user group is all about - the utilization of the talents and magnanimity of the membership to the advantage of all. Step Four will be the collection and collation of the data. Meanwhile, the committee will consider the best means of exploiting the information obtained both for potential advertisers and bulk dealers, together with setting in train improvements that you have suggested and publishing the survey results.
If you still have the survey form and have not completed it, please do so. It is not too late and the more responses, the more reliable the data. If you have not completed it but would like to, and have no longer got the survey, ring the office and our staff will post one out to you.
Censorship on the BBS
The board has recently witnessed a discussion in the General Area (Area 10) concerning the controversial topic of when, if ever, a user should have his comments deleted, moved to the private area, or simply be asked to pull his/her head in. Dave Mitchell recently suggested appointing moderators in some local echoes (eg, the General Area, Help for New Users, Humour, Flames). The committee was virtually unanimous in its opposition to having areas controlled by any one person and prefers the tried and trusted Fidonet system of sysop-management.
Meanwhile, Dave is devising some guidelines for certain areas - e.g. to ensure that the area is used for its stated purpose (Internet, Hints and Tips, etc), and to indicate what will be frowned upon in some of the more frantic local echoes.
Some members with long memories hark back to the days when critics of either the board or management of Melb PC itself were met with stinging replies and occasionally gruff ultimata unless silence reigned or the topic was moved to the private area. I can even recall when the board did not have a private area! . It needs to be pointed out that the sysops, and yours truly for that matter, have learned a lot about BBSing on the fly, as it were, and are much more experienced now at handling (or choosing to not handle) the odd rebuke, violent disagreement or the thankfully rare abusive message.
Though it makes their blood curdle at times, demands to remedy perceived problems with the board, sometimes couched in language which would even make Lester Stone (Salty on the BBS) blush, are dealt with politely, and occasionally, firmly. That is the role of the sysops.
The committee and the sysops have a policy that critical statements pertaining to Melb PC or its officers will not be removed for that reason alone. Inappropriate language (which varies depending on the area concerned), and abusive or libellous messages fall into a different category and the messager will be asked either to consider others, to move the topic into the private area, or to beware of the laws of libel depending on the situation.
Recently, two examples of "censorship" have caused some comment from members. In the Humour message area, a member was uploading daily jokes purloined from the Internet. The content was invariably of a sick, some might say tasteless, nature. Jokes about Helen Keller, sufferers of Alzheimer's Disease, and the like, moved me to ask the messager to consider others and perhaps upload humour which was a little funnier and not in such poor taste. He politely replied that he would acquiesce with this request and instead uploaded a file of his self-confessed tasteless stuff to the files area for those interested. For those poor souls interested, it is still there somewhere.
I was concerned to prevent the Humour area from becoming simply a haven for sick jokes. The member was simply asked to think again - no direction or ultimatum was given. Nevertheless, a few members grumbled and I was painted as humourless and censorious. Recent humour, e.g. Glenn Eaton's hilarious story of the hotel and the soap (headed "Customer Service") tend to make me think that it was all worthwhile. I'll wear the slings and arrows - this time! .
Another member sent to Ash Nallawalla, editor of PC Update, a disgruntled message critical of a PC repairer who advertises in the magazine. If his allegations are true, he has cause for complaint. Some of his criticisms depended on the accuracy of what he was told by another (rival) repairer. His allegations of incompetence and dishonesty were potentially libellous and we were forced to move his message to the private area. This was not done because the alleged miscreant was an advertiser in the magazine. We would have had to act regardless of our personal relationship with the dealer concerned.
I emphasize the distinction between bagging Microsoft and a local dealer. I don't think Bill Gates will lose too much sleep if Dirty Dave indulges himself in a friendly bit of Windows bashing - this appears on virtually all boards! But a local PC dealer may well have cause for complaint if he/she is vilified on such a widely-read board as ours, particularly if the allegations are just that - allegations. If this means that members cannot exchange views freely about the quality of local PC dealers, then that is a fault of the law and not of the BBS.
Melb PC needs to delicately trip between the role of a hobbyist's organization and that of a large, quasi-commercial body. Whilst we would like to fearlessly encourage and lead critical comment on matters pertaining to PC life, we must bear in mind that we have advertisers, we engage in bulk hardware deals, and we encourage presenters at monthly meetings. Simultaneously, we are mindful that our BBS is not simply a hobbyist's board, run from his/her bedroom and with a relative handful of registered users. If member X bags dealer Y on the board, then the latter will no doubt be advised by his lawyers that a possible source of damages is Melb PC, which owns and runs the BBS and "publishes" the "offending material". What that means is that some messages critical of potentially litigious dealers will be moved, or deleted if we are judged to be at risk. We took legal advice on this subject in the middle of last year. We would be fools to ignore it.
In general, however, the view of the committee and the sysops is, and will remain that censorship will only be a last resort in cases of potential libel, and where the language used, or the abusive content leads to some positive action being taken. Meanwhile, Dave, Peter Freeman and I will still argue about the other contentious topic, namely where two or more members get a bit heated and indulge in violent disagreement. My view is that such threads should not be interfered with and members who wish to fight their battles in public are allowed, if not particularly encouraged, to do so. I hear that there are even some who enjoy the vicarious thrill of reading other members' squabbles. What do you think?
Name this Space
The breathtaking competition to rename this column reached new heights this month when someone actually came up with a serious suggestion.
New member David Mutch had meanwhile urged me not to change the name of the column for the -
"absolute chunder currently being suggested. Putting all the BBS naming and slanging fun aside, CPU represents an important section of a widely read, appealing, great magazine. I LIKE CPU! Keep the mag a mag, not a rag!"
However, methinks he speaks with forked tongue, for his message was headed "Grabbed by the Balls"!
Ren Benko, one of the board's more gentle, creative souls, produced Claude's Closet and Bawls to You (Too). The imposing Tessa Melland liked "I, Claudius" but also suggested "We, Lovitt". A recent appearance on the board, Jasper Daams suggested some titles I'm sure he does not want to see listed here, then said, "On second thoughts, stick to CPU."
Eventually, someone got fair dinkum, and came up with an excellent suggestion. Alan McNamara's "On the RAMpage". Ain't too bad at all, is it?
So there it is - do we stick to "Club President's Update" or give "On the RAMpage" the gong? I'll ask our resident punster and namer-of-most-of-the-earlier-columns, Peter Smith.......
Reprinted from the October 1994 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
