16 Oct
1999
16 Oct
'99
8:12 a.m.
Upon the date 11:06 AM 10/16/99 -0400, CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com said
something like:
I know myself that I've not found _all_ of the PDP-11 and uVAX resources.
I've noticed some webpages, for example, never come up in any search engine
because the owner hasn't indexed their page properly or at all. I can
search till I'm blue in the face and miss stuff. Also, slogging through
dozens and dozens of 'hits' that are HTML-based is not at all fun when
you've got a limited time budget and only a 48k BPS connection (yeah, only
a couple of years ago that was considered blinding _fast_!). Many important
resources, which I'd think were searchable, I've found simply by other
ClassicCmp list members mentioning them here.
I've seen antique radio, computer collectors and ham radio pages that have
a nice section dedicated to interesting links. By asking the relevant
collector/enthusiast webpage owners to place a link to your
http://www.trailing-edge.com/www/freeware.html page on their site will
help toward your goal of "getting the word out". Maybe you can setup a page
of interesting links as an exchange with those folks who link to your
freeware page. Sellam's VCF pages seem to be one of the magnets a search
engine nails (amongst several other's pages from ClassicCmp) and would be
one of the important sites to link to your freeware.
>One idea
that has crossed my mind, but I don't know if there's any way
>to pull it off: There are obviously lots of "collectors" on E-bay who have
Between newsgroups and this list you have informed
a number of people who
tend to blab, so lots more get key information.
True, but for every well-connected classic computer user (and I rank
all subscribers to classiccmp as "well-connected"!) I'm willing
to bet there are 1000 others who don't have a clue as to what free resources
there are on the web for their old platform, be it a PDP-11 or a
CP/M machine or a IBM 1401 :-). Ebay is simple, put some up for auction. Its an
AD.
I'm more concerned with hooking up users with all the free software
archives that are already out there, than with selling any particular item.
Even many of our "collector" pages, where folks put up pictures of their
favorite old computers, often do a very poor job of connecting random readers
to useful resources.
Am I completely misguided in wanting to reach more people - in particular,
folks we haven't already reached - so that they can more effectively use
Misguided? Certainly not! Many of us want to freely share our knowledge
with folks who want to learn about similar systems. Whenever I am able to I
am very enthusiastic about sharing info. It's just I'm not that organized
at present to comprehensively share my archives :(
their classic computers? Many of our efforts on this
list
are confined to the small circle of those who are already "in the know".
Indeed. And it seems those not "in the know" who are members of the list,
plus outsiders who hear of us, do seek the knowledgeable folks on the list
for advice. Links from collector's pages and heavy hits from search engines
helps broaden the reach that you are seeking Tim.
Regards, Chris
-- --
Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian
Jamestown, NY USA cfandt(a)netsync.net
Member of Antique Wireless Association
URL: http://www.antiquewireless.org/