1 Sep
2006
1 Sep
'06
10:34 a.m.
> This is exactly the problem with every *other*
metric (other than
> Ray's) which has been proposed so far -- everyone has their hard rule, but
> their own "cool" exceptions. And "cool" is strictly in the eye
of the
> beholder.
> Ray's metric is easy to follow, easy to verify, and entirely insulated
> from a subjective opinion of what constitutes cool[.]
You're right, but what good is an "easy"
rule if it's also totally
inaccurate?
This all started (this time at least) with Choctaw Bob's comments*:
> I think that this just squeaks in as being on topic.
> I am looking for suggestions for an operating system for a PC, specs 75
> MHZ Pentium, 16 MB Ram, 4 GB HD,
But this isn't so much a problem with the rule per se -- it's an issue of
enforcement.
Prior to this, there were people who observed the 10-year rule, those who
did not, those who observed the 10-year-rule-plus-cool-exceptions-they-made,
those who had their own metrics entirely divorced from the 10 year rule,
self-avowed anarchists and etc. And because "on topic" had a very nebulous
definition, people could make cases for their particular brand of topic
transgression or just ignore complaints about what they brought up.
A rule like Ray's is mega-enforceable because it's purely objective. Despite
adding more stuff into the fold, it also makes the wall around the fold much
more obvious and easy to shore up. Best of all, it makes off-topic proveable
without any subjective analysis.
* (Nothing against Choctaw, and hey, as I noted in my
original reply to his
message, this IS the on- and OFF-topic list so it's acceptable.)
Yes, that's so. With Jay merging the two, however, I think that makes a
topicality discussion that much more acute and that brings me to *another*
good point about Ray's metric: it scales up. Orphaned systems and
architectures are automatically brought into the fold.
Whether people like it or not, classic computing is going to widen as a topic
field. It's inevitable.
--
--------------------------------- personal: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ ---
Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser at floodgap.com
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