 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Editorial Ash Nallawalla ash@melbpc.org.au |
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Why do I bother department
Thanks to my reminder to vote for the Readers' Choice Awards last month, we received five more paper entries, making the total a staggering nine. I got a few comments about the merits of enclosing a loose form in lieu of a bound form. That would add hundreds of dollars to the cost of the survey with no guarantee of a significantly higher response rate. Thanks to all who did complete the survey.
If you don't participate in some form or the other you are letting yourself down. If enough people took a "why bother?" attitude, you know what will happen.
It happened. Despite many assurances that my hurried, abrupt replies to cries for help on the BBS are not intended to mock or belittle the questioner, some people feel that is still not good enough. I am criticised for saying that I answered the question a few days ago and that the answer is somewhere on the BBS. For crying out loud, do I have to find that earlier answer and supply it every time afresh? If this should go into a FAQ, who will compile one?
Consequently, I no longer subscribe to most public BBS message areas other than the PC Update and Members to Committee areas. I will ignore all Internet help requests. Yes, I get lots of thanks, but I can do without the ones who think that our volunteers aren't good enough.
More gripes
Some members are hard to please. This is a different bunch now. I am addressing the members out there who might have heard one side of the story.
Your discount offer to members is not listed? Please use the form and it will be. If it cannot fit in the form, please buy an advertisement. We need them.
A country SIG is upset and threatening to secede. I cannot comment on all aspects of their letter to our Secretary other than to dispute one bit. That is the remark,
"Members' frustration is being compounded by their inability even to generate lines of contact for submissions to PC Update, notices for the bulletin board, etc. These used to be good but seem to have gone very sour in the face of continuing changes in Melbourne in setups and/or methods, which do not appear to be adequately documented and with those responsible being consistently not known or unavailable."
The ways to submit articles for PC Update are very well documented in this magazine and haven't changed in intent for some years. Our systems are built around the resources we have and what might seem perfectly sensible to someone is not practical for us.
Some months ago another SIG had sent a letter that included a remark about its SIG reports being excluded from PC Update. My request for specific examples was not answered, but I note for the record that no reports have been received for the last two issues. I also repeat that SIG reports are not being rejected, least of all by me. I see articles after they have been subbed and typeset, often minutes before they go to the film process. More than once uploads to the BBS have temporarily fallen into areas that we cannot see and sometimes the BBS has had a crash. Sometimes it could be human error, an accidental deletion, whatever. Do not invent a nonexistent problem. There is no conspiracy against SIG reports: to the contrary, my feeling is that any SIG that does not submit a quarterly report at the least should be shut down.
Another reader wrote to the President asking him to get PC Update to print an annual index. If an indexer can do this accurately for us, we would love to print an annual index. Nobody here has the time to do it. Those of you with Internet access can, of course, search on any single word (more than three letters) on the online edition, but that is cold comfort to the rest.
Someone wants me to write an article about Windows 95 and Internet access. Sorry, I'll pass. I believe the seminar on 21 October will cover this, if you can wait that long (see back cover).
Someone who addresses me as "Dear Sir or Madam" asks for concessions to be made for pensioners as regards annual fees. That certainly has my support, since we are not exactly impoverished.
No news is bad news
If your favourite newsgroup is suddenly empty, it is because we have temporarily unsubscribed most newsgroups and are slowly subscribing to the ones you want. And you haven't been reading the news in melbpc.general. News traffic had suddenly mushroomed to the point of some 880 MB-worth banked up and rising, and our throughput became nonexistent. Until we can upgrade the ISDN link, this will continue. Check melbpc.newsgroups. As before, the delay is external.
Free Internet access
We need about a dozen Internet helpers to attend the office during the day (in a roster) to answer members' questions. Reasonable expenses will be paid and you can surf all you want while you wait for the next call. Contact Stan Johnstone.
Election
The group needs some hard-working souls to run for the committee next year. Please do not run if your circumstances are likely to change any minute or if you have some personal agenda.
Cabinetmaker
If you can build, donate, or even locate a lockable, glass-fronted cabinet for the office, please contact Tricia at the office. Ideally, each shelf should have its own lock. We have some valuable videos etc for loan that need such a home.
Reprinted from the October 1995 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
