16 Oct
1999
16 Oct
'99
5:28 a.m.
It's obvious that these methods of reaching classic
computer
users hit only a small fraction of active PDP-11 users.
There's what, maybe a couple of dozen frequent participants in this
mailing list, and the number of regular posters on vmsnet.pdp-11 can
be counted on two hands.
Is there anyway to get the word out via DECUS? Though I doubt many us that
are PDP-11 users are DECUS members, unless they're also OpenVMS users. The
problem here being that if you're both I see it as being a good chance
you're already having seen the announcement on either the newsgroups, or
CLASSICCMP.
Is there a better way of reaching a wider audience of
classic computer
users? In particular, folks who don't read technical Usenet discussion
groups and who haven't happened upon this specific mailing list.
Or, even in this "connected" world that we live in, is there no better
way of reaching what I know is a very broad base of classic computer
users out there?
The problem I see here is that a lot of these people are likely to be
maintainers with fairly static systems. Their systems do what they want,
and they don't have any compelling reason to change. As such they're not
activelly looking for information. Probably the best way to reach these
people would be word of mouth.
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
little connection with our reality of using classic computers. Is there
no way at all of reaching these folks? I don't mean preaching to them,
but at least tying them together into a broader knowledge base than the
wheeling and dealing on E-bay.
Well, as has been mentioned as a rather 'tacky' way to do it, put one/some
up on eBay, and include a link to the web page you've got on the CD-R's.
Then have a link on that page to other PDP-11 resources, make sure these
are all non-commercial resources though.
Zane
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |