Re installing XP on Sony

[Jules Richardson]

On Fri, 2005-03-04 at 21:01 +0000, Pete Turnbull wrote:
> On Mar 4 2005, 10:56, Dwight K. Elvey wrote:
> 
> >  I think many don't realize the damage that can happen
> > when the group becomes a "Please fix my PC" group.
> > I watched this happen to a news group that had too many
> > people that tolerated such off topic post. From Jim's own
> > words, he thought that this was a general computer
> > group.> [ snip ]
> 
> FWIW, I'm in complete agreement with Dwight, and well remember the
> newsgroup he means, having used it from 1994 until its eventual demise.
>  Actually, it's still there - but has become an alt.fix.my.pc group.

Not alt.comp.homebuilt? I think I looked there a while ago and gave up
when I saw how many PC posts there were. Plus comp.arch.hobbyist seems
to be totally dead (I don't know if that one was ever any good).
alt.folklore.computers is sort-of ok, but the thread length and topic
drift is the worst I've ever seen of any newsgroup or mailing list, so
reading is either a case of skimming through a ton of crap in a thread
or missing out on potentially useful stuff :(

As for this list... I don't know; I'm tempted to say there's no danger
of it turning into a PC support list ever. Subscribing to the list is
too much trouble for someone who doesn't have an interest in classic
machines and who just wants PC support help. Usenet's a different story;
it's easy to crosspost to a million groups whenever someone feels like
it.

And there *is* cctech for moderated posts after all, so the odd off-
topic post to cctalk seems no big deal to me (now at least; if it was
50% of traffic it'd annoy me!). Believe me, gun posts drive me nuts and
I have no desire to read them, but I just delete the occasional one that
crops up :)

cheers

Jules