🚀 go-pugleaf

In various postings in this newsgroup, some of the ugly
symptoms of changes at AUUG have been exposed to the light
of criticism.

Pat Duffy, in her column in March's Australian Open Systems
Review has underlined that AUUG must change because it is
not meeting the requirements of the membership. In this
respect, she is right, but the fact that changes she, and
the remainder of the committeee have instigated in AUUG has
distanced it from the members, seems to have escaped their
perspective.

This is not just a criticism of Pat or the committe alone,
but of the whole association, including the general
membership. Members are abandoning AUUG because it no longer
suits them and they have become disillusioned by some of the
changes which have occurred (like the underhanded change of
name).

I suggest that those members consider renewing their
mmebership and running for office at the next election. This
will allow them to shape AUUG to their ideals. At least
lobbying the committee, and voicing your objections will
help, and the silent majority may just see that what they
think is happening, is not just a figment of their
imagination.

So what is happening?

Well, it seems to me that AUUG is hell-bent on becoming an
Australian version of UniForum, with minor concessions to
hackerdom.

Let me state right now that this is not what I see as what
the majority of the members want. I have been a member of
AUUG, WAUG and /usr/group (now UniForum) for some years and
the only one of these which still meets my expectations is
WAUG.

UniForum is being absorbed by glitz and hype. The
marketroids are taking over, and the amount of technical
information which comes forth from the bowels of the
monolith is often inaccurate and misleading (take a look at
the 1992 Product Directory -- a complete mess). Sure, it all
looks very pretty and there is a lot of it, but the quality
is lacking.

AUUG seems doomed to follow in UniForum's footsteps. It is
well equipped to avoid this, but the charm of becoming a
large organization respected by "everyone" (mostly the
vendors) is too great. Indeed, the Americanism of throwing
money at problems in the hope of suffocating them seems
popular with the engagement of a publicity orgranization
(Symetry Design) being a good example.

IMHO, the best way for AUUG to get good publicity is to
provide those things which vendors cannot, like real,
unbiased information from a resource of competent experts,
willing to help with problems for reasons other than
monetary reward. AUUG used to have this resource (probably
still has), and it was informally advertised. It used to be
a pleasure to be a member of AUUG. now it's tedious.

AUUG should not be out to sell itself. It should be an
attractive resource for the UNIX community, who are
apparently sick and tired of glossy brochures, marketing
speak, and bullshit from vendors. 

Australia's advantage over the USA appears to be a higher
per-capita IQ (but we make up for it in apathy). We must
strive to enforce our strengths and overcome our weaknesses.
AUUG can help us to more than match the drivel and tripe
that rolls across the Pacific in waves, by enforcing our
technical expertise, and giving us a single voice.

This is not a call to war, it is a call to reason, and
perspective. Australians will not be like Americans for a
long time to come, but AUUG seems to be jumping the gun by
imitating its larger cousins in the US. We don't need that,
and we don't want that.

Are these all vague criticisms?

[ copies mailed to auugexec@munnari.oz.au ]
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