Re: ADMIN: An Open Letter to the TECHWR-L Community

["Simon North" <Simon -dot- North -at- quintiq -dot- com>]

I joined techwr-l when it was at okstate, and before then struggled to
read it via bitnet. In those days, there was no public Internet access
in the Netherlands and I used to have to dial international through my
1200 baud modem and access it through the quirky gateway provided by CIX
(the UK version of the BIX bulletin board run by Byte magazine). My
phone bills were so large I never knew whether to try and pay them or
frame them for posterity. I was nearly sacked once by an employer
(marched off the premises by security) for what they considered to be
inappropriate emails as a result of my participation. It was because of
an email to the list about XML that Sams.Net asked me to write "Teach
Yourself XML in 21 Days" and got me started on my brief fling as a
'proper' writer. We've covered a lot of miles together. 

I dropped my membership of the STC last year (after nearly 20 years of
membership it suddenly dawned on me that I was getting next to nothing
for my large financial contribution), my ISTC fellowship went the same
way ... I hardly miss them, but without my techwr-l I would feel
horribly isolated; resubscribing one of my first priorities when I move
around. In all those years I can only have posted a few tens of times,
but I must have read tens of thousands of postings, good, bad,
indifferent, rude, challenging ... but all extremely valuable. 

Please, let's not let this priceless resource die. Don't let it be
taken over by some commercial company (can you imagine it being owned by
RoboHelp, aka Macromedia, or Microsoft???). I dread the thought. For
what it's worth, and I'm handicapped by being several thousand miles
away since I got laid off from my Silicon Valley gig, I hereby volonteer
my time and resources in whatever capacity I can to help keep this list
alive. 

Simon North


Quintiq Application Software BV
's Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands

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