Mini Board traffic

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3 total messages Started by Fred G Martin Tue, 05 Jan 1993 05:56

#1704

Author: Fred G Martin
Date: Tue, 05 Jan 1993 05:56

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I'm surprised that several netters feel so strongly that the goings-on
regarding the Mini Board is inappropriate for this newsgroup.  

Some have referred to the Mini Board as a "product."  I wonder if it
is clear that nobody who's been involved in acquiring parts, printing
and distributing boards, or etc. is making money on this---it's not a
commercial venture, and shouldn't be thought of as such.  (Some
people, like Alan Kilian, even sold their parts for a loss, not really
a good business strategy ;-( )

Perhaps you nay-sayers will consider this:  I receive a fairly steady,
though not heavy, stream of requests for more information about the
Mini Board.  I have a stock reply for these people, so it doesn't take
up much of my time to respond, but I'll bet many of these folks would
not hear of the project if not for the mundane traffic about ordering
parts, etc. 

Given that the volume of this newsgroup is really quite small compared
with most, I would ask you to consider not having such a harsh
attitude to a little noise traffic about the Mini Board---if it is
just a minor annoyance, isn't making an entry into your kill file an
appropriate response?

Finally, thanks to the work of another net citizen---Greg Kulosa
(gkulosa@oberon.com)---there will soon be a Mini Board mailing list,
so the point will be moot.  I do hope that some traffic continues to
spill over to this group though, so that new readers can get curious
as to "what is that durned thing?!".

	- Fred



P.S.  If you are one of these new readers, you can find out about the
Mini Board by FTP'ing to cher.media.mit.edu and looking at the file
pub/miniboard/info.

Re: Mini Board traffic

#1712

Author: David Ransier
Date: Tue, 05 Jan 1993 17:23

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Enough sitting by quietly! It's time to add my two cents.

I agree whole heartedly with Fred.  I'm very new to robotics.  In fact, I haven't
really started yet.  I've been technically intertested for many years but felt 
the experimental kits were either too expensive or too mucha toy.  I'm hoping
my purchase of the miniboard kit will get me started with a real project.

I wouldn't know about it at all if it wasn't for the "noise" on the net.

There seems to be very little real robot-industry info sharing going on 
here. So it makes good sense to use some of this bandwidth for promoting
and encouraging the hobby/industry.

** Start sermon, with flames on low **

And don't be so hard on people who are trying to do you a favor.  The one thing 
that bothers me most about Usenet is how people take advantage of "freedom of 
speech" and seem so eager to flame with the slightest provocation.  It's OK
to bitch when, but don't be destructive.

** End sermon, let the all-expected flames begin **

-- 

+++++++++++++
David Ransier  davidr@mentorg.com              These comments are my own. I paid for them. I own them.
               (503) 685-1528  Fax: 685-7704   They're not my employers, and you can't have them.
+++++++++++++

Re: Mini Board traffic

#1751

Author: Roy William Feague
Date: Fri, 08 Jan 1993 23:12

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I'd just like to lend my support to Fred and other MiniBoard supporters
out there.  The key point is that without MiniBoard traffic, there would
be next to NO traffic on this newgroup, and the number of new people who
are being brought into the circle of robotics experimentation has been
notably increased by the MiniBoard.  While the start-up information swapping
may be irritating to those not involved, the higher-level issues that will
be discussed once these things are built later on will make up for that.
-Roy

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