Hi Ann, Good deal then. We can agree on these points, and, yes, shame on NFB for just suddenly getting RID of the NFB Net BBS. I know they have been experiencing some technical issues lately with their DSL connection and such, but as far as I am aware, those were not systems related issues. But, then, I could have been missing something... I am not totally surprised that NFB didn't tap their membership to find people who had lots of Linux experience to determine a way to keep all services. Oh, well, then again, maybe they did, but they tapped the wrong people. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ann Parsons" <akp@xxxxxxxxx> To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca> Sent: Saturday, September 21, 2002 5:19 PM Subject: Re: NFB Net goes linux! > Hi Darrell, > > That's very true, Darrell, but what I'm objecting to is that the > original message in the thread stated that telnet and the BBS features > of their system would no longer be available. This, I felt was short > changing some of their members, and I thought it was too bad. I > wanted the techies to be more knowledgeable so that their members > wouldn't have to give up telnet or BBS access. > > <smile> No, I wasn't suggesting that the end users start using Linux > out of the box, not at all. What I was hoping to see was some > evidence that they wanted to keep things as accessible as possible and > keep the change-over as seamless as possible, thereby not losing any > of their members. Apparently, losing membership access is not > important. I think that is a shame, especially when it is a consumer > based organization. the offhand "we're sorry if this inconveniences > anyone..." is a callous and a noncaring way to treat people, any > people, and especially those who count on that particular means of > access. > > For some, it may be their only way to talk with others and to learn > about the world outside their own surcomscribed lives. I think that > the techies who run the machines at that organization would be > astonished at the kinds of people who access their services and if > they knew more about their constituency, they might not take such a > cavalier attitude toward scrapping the telnet and the bbs services. > > I don't access their services, but as a netizen of some years, and one > familiar with online communities, I can safely say that this BBS, > whatever it is, is an online community and there are probably members > of that community who need it. They may not be the vocal members, > they are probably the lurkers in the background who come on, take part > in the community and consider it to be their home. There may be > others for whom this online community makes the difference between > sanity and not. > > One doesn't destroy a community thoughtlessly with a paragraph or two > couched in pretty phrases, not unless an alternative is offered. > > that is why the topic came up. That is why I started this discussion. > That is why I wrote to the original poster of the forwarded msg to ask > about SSH to ask about alternatives. I repeat. You can not destroy a > community thoughtlessly. > > Ann P. > > sy>>>>> "Darrell" == Darrell Shandrow <nu7i at azboss.net> writes: > > Darrell> Hi Ann, Keep in mind that Linux is actually not > Darrell> appropriate for most users, especially the command-line > Darrell> interface. Most people want their technology to be > Darrell> simple to operate. They're not interested in how the > Darrell> computer works or anything of that sort. They just want > Darrell> to use it to get work done! > > > -- > Ann K. Parsons > email: akp at eznet.net ICQ Number: 33006854 > WEB SITE: http://home.eznet.net/~akp > "All that is gold does not glitter. Not all those who wander are lost." JRRT > > > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
