Aminet 48/Aminet 48 (2002)(GTI - Schatztruhe)[!][Apr 2002].iso/Aminet/demo/mag/gods-disc12.lha/D.I.S.C.12/text/thescene-REDUNDANT-SPREADERS

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«c2»«ac»REDUNDANT SPREADERS«»
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«c1»By Darkhawk/IRIS«»
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«as»«c7»I'm a «c6»swapper «c7»and no «c6»trader, «c7»but I
want to write a bit about both
functions and their state right now.
Yes yes, how many times have we read
articles like these? Well, atleast I
only do such articles one time a year
or so, eheh.. And this time I have
some slightly different, and «c6»not so
positive an angle on the subject, «c7»but
it will hopefully end op being
optimistic in the end anyway, atleast
for the swappers, if not for the
traders.«»
«»
Because, as a function, the spreading
of productions via «c6»traditional mail,
«c7»patronizingly called snail mail (but
hey, my last letter I got from Poland
was 2-3 weeks in arriving, arghh) is
«c6»mostly redundant «c7»and quite meaningless
outside of the small circle of
swappers. And as a function, the
«c6»trader is not needed anymore either,
«c7»not in spreading scenish productions,
and not in spreading warez, as there
are no warez, and no crackers to crack
those warez even if there was.«»
«»
Last I heard, there were around 2-3
boards who were online 24 hours and
active, on the net, and that's what's
left of the huge warez scene it seems.
With that few boards, there aren't
many traders either, and they don't
have much to do, but to spread
productions that can for the most
part easily be downloaded from other,
public internet sites. Scene wise,
that is most obvious, «c6»you go to aminet
amigascne.org, etc., to get your
releases, you certainly don't check
out any board anymore, «c7»and those who
do, are mostly not interested in
actually viewing those productions
either. As for the commercial stuff,
the real interesting things that one
could find on the illegal boards.. Yes
well, we all know the sorry state of
the «c6»commercial Amiga sector, «c7»so quite
literally, we have a few (a handful at
most I guess) «c6»Amiga traders, «c7»who are
starved for releases, ANY releases to
put up on boards where nobody but they
themselves and a few others check it,
when the same stuff can be found
easily on the internet. Quite sad when
you look at it that way really. The
«c6»trading scene is really struggling to
survive, «c7»but it seems like they won't
make it, they simply need to have more
releases to spread, they need more
life, they're at the end for now
anyway, until some revival will start
making it attractive visitting boards.
Right now they cling to the last
vestiges of life, rather stubbornly,
but that is admiring in and of itself.«»
«»
Well, you all knew that, and if you
were a «c6»swapper, «c7»you might wear a
little grin on your face, thinking
'Hah, and the traders always said we'd
die out and they'd replace us.. Now
look at them'. True of course,
«c6»swapping is more alive than trading,
«c7»but only by some small degrees, sadly.
Let's say there are 15-20 active
swappers left? I sent out EC #43 in
the last days of July, and I got TWO
answers out of the 21 letters I sent
so far. Now that's sad! But this is
not about how active or fast the few
remaining swappers are. More about the
fact that «c6»swapping as a means of
spreading productions is dead! «c7»Yes, I
know, so many articles claiming
swapping is dead, and now I, good old
hardcore swapper myself, finally write
it, because I need a filler article?
Not quite, look at my words. Swapping
as a way of spreading productions
(efficiently) is surely dead. There is
one packmag, that is spread only by
mail, and not allowed to be spread via
the internet, and that is Lahve's
«c6»Sabotage pack, «c7»a really nice packmag
for sure. Issue 10 of it was spread
via the internet too, as a sort
of exception Lahve said, but I
wonder.. You could still find some
Sabotage issues on the net though, as
some, even amongst swappers, don't
really care to keep this
production off the net. And Sabotage
is the ONLY production I know of you
have a chance of not getting via the
net. So, when you can get all
productions via the net, and you can
get them vastly faster off the net,
what point is there in claiming that
swapping, as a way of distributing
releases efficiently isn't dead? There
are none I think. «c6»Swapping will never
make a comeback, «c7»and if we, the
remaining swappers are real lucky and
dedicated, it will remain as a
sub-movement of the scene, a movement
that non-swappers won't understand and
will only shake their heads at. Well,
let them, if they think we do it
because of spreading and getting
stuff, they would be wrong now. I
mean, most swappers are also on the
internet and have an email. And it is
a kinda' weird feeling, snailmailing
something to a swapping friend you
know he will himself download even
before you post the letter. We close
our eyes to this though, because we
really want to «c6»keep swapping alive.«»
«»
«c7»And what is it we want to keep alive?
It's the friendship and the spirit of
this «c6»submovement. «c7»Some of us also feel
a kind of loyality to this
submovement. In 1989 I started out as
a swapper, and I'll be damned if I'm
going to stop before I don't have
anyone to write letters to anymore.
But looking at it realistically, the
scene really has moved on, and doesn't
really care much about swappers,
sadly, though they care more about us
than traders, because we're still
participating in other things, besides
sending slow mails to eachother, we're
some of the most engaged sceners, we
write articles, bring out packs,
organize groups, and try to enroll
others to like our scene and our
swapping activities. We are in short
still some of the «c6»lifeblood of the
scene. «c7»Although we're so few now, we
still make an impact. Just not in
regards to spreading productions,
which was our primary function once.
Not anymore, and better if you don't
see a swapper in that limited way, as
a person spreading stuff in an archaic
way. Rather you should see such a
person as possesing a plethora of
scene knowledge and as having a lot of
scenish connections, a person active
in the scene (well, the active
swappers, anyway), and so on. Swapping
and riting letters have given us many
benefits we now can use, and since
we're so loyal and actually still like
swapping, many of us still do that
too.«»
«»
So, the internet might have killed
swapping and trading when it comes to
spreading productions. We might aswell
admit that right away, even the few
hardcore swappers left have come to
see this I think. «c6»The internet is
easy, everybody has access to it, and
you get everything at the releasedate
if you want. «c7»There're no need for
disks via parcels with the production
in them, and no need to go through a
bbs with an upload/download ratio, to
get scenish releases. These ways of
spreading things are obsolete.«»
«»
Sad as it is for the traders though,
they really don't stand a chance of
surviving this, not until more
commercial releases get out, but the
swappers have a good chance of
surviving and adapting, indeed we
already have adapted a great deal. And
our motivation must potentially be
much greater than the motivation of a
trader. A trader has one function,
spreading releases. The anarchistic
and vast internet has taken over that
function, and «c6»made both swapping and
trading redundant. «c7»The trader as a
function has died out as a result of
this, but the swapper has the
potential to live on, as there's more
than just spreading stuff to that
function. «c6»Cheers for the swappers, «c7»I
hope we can get more into our
movement, but if not, I hope we'll
continue living for a long time
anyway. Don't be bothered by the
internet, it doesn't mean swapping is
useless!«»
«»
«c6»But.. DO SEND ME ANSWERS SOON, DAMN
MOST OF YOU! ;)«»
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