Subject: Re: Should Newtek SUPPORT this list?
From: [email-masked] (Doug Peters)
To: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 7 Jan 1996 04:20:57 +22293746 (CST)

> > Personally, I think that if they hosted this list it would be absolutely 
> > worthless.  Imagine the misinformation, and self promotion would give us 
> > then.  And we'd probably move to another list to avoid it.
> > -dp
> 
> 
> 
> As a regular caller to NT's bbs, I think these fears are unfounded. I've 
> never seen NT censor or delete any negative comments on their board. 
> Believe me, in the early days of the Flyer, there were tons of negative 
> messages, and lots of flames. Poor Chuck Baker, just tried to answer as 
> best he can. I wouldn't have taken his job for any amount of money.
> 
>  There is not a lot of self promotion either. It's a support oriented 
> board, and I assume they would treat this list the same. Besides, Dave 
> would still be running the list, Newtek would just host it, and maybe 
> have some sort of presence on it.> > 

OK, but shouldn't they at least have a `presence' FIRST?  This list is 
intended to support NewTek products, but NewTek isn't helping us out here 
now.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I mean that although 
New Tek probably is very much in favor of the continuation of this list, 
they obviously don't have much intrest in it, or they might be helping us 
out with our probs... or even making OFFFICIAL Press releases directly to 
the list (instead of Dave having to forward us the juicy tidbits he digs up).

Yes, New Tek has a vested intrest in the support of thier product, and 
therefore, indirectly, to the List Serv as well.  But they don't seem to 
be too interested in the List itself.  This is not a flaw, I am sure they 
are busy as heck answering questions and doing support by other means 
(BBS, Phone, FAX, Etc.,).  

Perhaps they would welcome such a list, but I don't think it's a good 
idea to just hand it over to them (even with Dave still `in charge').  At 
least until they maintain a presence.

One big reason I have is politics (a NASTY word these days).  What if 
they suddenly decided that we shouldn't mention the Perception, or Speed 
Razor, even though users of thier product need help moving video and/or 
audio to these cards effectively and efficently?  Do they suddenly have 
to go elsewhere?  Why?

You may say this won't be the case, and you may well be right - 100%!!!  
But it does happen!  I remember when all I had was Fido access, and I was 
setting up a BBS with a freeware package (MAX's BBS).  I couldn't get 
tips from anyone in the Telecomm echo because only Term packages were to 
be discussed (geez, louise...) and I couldn't get support in the 
PD Echo because it was `off-topic', and I couldn't ask in the Amiga Sysop 
echo because I didn't have SysOp status until I had the BBS setup.  

So what I'm saying is that although you may be quite correct in your 
deduction, I would genuinely like to get a handshake and meet a person 
before I invite him over for dinner.

-dp