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.IF DSK1.C3
.CE 2
*IMPACT/99*
by Jack Sughrue
^^^^GOOD OLD DAYS
^^^^PART III: THE DARK AGES
.IF DSK1.C2
Were the Dark Ages really awful
for all the people who lived through
them? I mean, if I were a serf would
I never have had any happiness if I
truly didn't know about such things
as freedom and rights? That's the
impression we keep getting from
everything we read about the Dark
Ages (which were not called that, of
course, except in hindsight).
Might we not be living in the
Electronic Dark Ages right now?
Might not some future generations
(freed from a flesh body thanks to
robotics and the research into
Artificial Intelligence) refer to us
as primitive, what with degenerating
bodies; minds cluttered with trivia
and obsessions; politics of death
rather than life; slums, homeless,
terror, war, famine?
But, still, might WE not think
this is a pretty cool age? And we
pretty cool cats? And Life a gas? (If
not downright totally wicked awesome
rad.)
So we come to the eve of
orphaning of the 4/A. That infamous
date (was it really a Friday the
13th?) will linger on in many
memories. The doomsayers leaped from
what they thought was an abyss and
began chanting, "Dark Ages. Dark
Ages. Dark Ages.")
I can clearly recall reading the
announcement in the papers and
saying, "Forsooth!" (or whatever was
the proper expletive in those days),
and going home that evening and
taking the cover off my console and
looking at it for a long time. Like
Ol' Dog Tray, 4/A and I had been
buddies for a long time. Now it
looked like the last roundup.
"Wait a minute!" I thought aloud.
"This computer still works. It's
still better than an Apple or IBM or
Commodore as is. There's no one down
in Texas who is going to snap a
switch that will shut off the 4/As
instantly worldwide. We still have
over 2 million owners. We still have
software being made, books being
written, and, best of all, my user
group is still intact."
We're well into the second half
of that decade now and we're not dead
yet. Not by a long shot.
There have been some remarkable
misjudgments by publishers and
software and hardware companies. I
think, for example, that the biggest
mistake came when companies and the
user groups eliminated the
non-techies. Forgetting about them.
Magazines like SMART PROGRAMMER
overestimated the number of techies
who would be interested in such
things as internal schematics or such
software as Advanced Diagnostics.
Once the market was quickly saturated
(some estimate TI techiehood as high
as 10,000 people worldwide, out of a
possible 2 1/2 million owners and a
possible 7 million users) that was
it. Software, for the most part, was
just not being made for the regular
user. As a result, lots of software
companies died (as did lots of
Fairware projects). Pirates were
blamed for ALL these deaths. There
was piracy, no doubt about it; but
the pirates, for the most part, were
the very techies who were a small
part of this very small part of the
TI community. No non-techie would
pirate Advanced Diagnostics, for
example, even if they knew how (which
would make them a techie), as it
would serve no purpose in that
person's computer life. Nor would
they pirate "Popeye" because they
wouldn't have the technical ability
to do so.
I think piracy has been overated
as a cause of death. Particularly as
there is no corpse.
I know of many people in our user
group (and this has happened at least
nationwide) who left, first, because
they believed the doomsayers; second,
because they didn't understand the
nature of undergrounding; and,
finally, because the rest of us had
bought RAMdisks and DSDDs and 512s
and GKs and were getting into
Assembly and were discussing GRAMS
and GROMS and other such things. Our
workshops were turning into boring
nightmares of technical jargon and
fast-moving files flashing across
multiple screens.
The general feeling of these
enthusiastic techies was expressed
often and loudly at faires and
conferences and club meetings: "If
you don't want to join the 20th
Century and update your system, then
get the hell out!"
As simple as that.
The tape recorder crowd who
needed a slower pace or didn't have
the money (or desire) for upgrading
the system, was left in the lurch.
So were those who only wanted
cartridges for software applcation:
PERSONAL RECORD KEEPING, MULTIPLAN,
LOGO. The one exception, of course,
was TI WRITER.
I rembember one meeting where a
speaker talked for 45 minutes on
Eproms. I didn't know what they were
and no one in the audience knew
(either before or after). Or cared.
Fewer of the old regulars came to the
meetings. There was no longer
anything for them. Each time we lost
a few more members, my heart would
sink. Without the user groups, I
knew, there would be no TI. The
machine would still work, but there
would be no community, no sharing, no
fellowship.
We tried raffles and other
bandaids for a while, but we didn't
bring back the oldtimers. And there
aren't any newtimers.
Or are there?
The TIs are still in the homes of
many people. If only young people
(including old young people) could be
encouraged to take an interest.
Many of the techies (if they've
not already done so) are going to
leave the TI for greater techiehood.
This is too bad. They left behind
some great things. But they left
behind (in those cases where there
were club takeovers) many dead
groups. Some of us are not
technically oriented, nor will we
ever be. There are a lot of 99ers
out there with tape recorders; a lot
of 99ers who have never used FORMAT
on their TI WRITERs; a lot of 99ers
who wouldn't evencareto own a GRAM
KRACKER (which is great for them as
GK isn't made anymore). However, we
non-techies can be assets to our
groups. Wecancontribute and have
lotstocontribute.
What did we do in the old days of
before and after the orphaning that
was so different?
We went to our user groups as a
social occasion, a monthly night out.
I think that came first for most
people. The 4/A was our commonality.
It was social. We talked and shared
and learned. We were all, more or
less, in the same boat. Those who
knew a bit more than we did helped
us. We did not feel excluded.
I went to a large TI group last
year with the intent of joining.
When I got there I felt very
uncomfortable. The members did not
introduce themselves, nor did they
ask me to "come on over" and chat.
Nothing. The meeting was
disorganized, but when it settled
down, nothing happened. There were
no workshops, no plans, no anything.
Except for five or six men (a couple
rather famous in the TI community)
who kind of held sway, loudly
cracking inside jokes as one or the
other of them talked a little bit
about what's on their BBS, about
Eproms (Damn Eproms, I say!), about
how to wire in an XB chip to your
console (using all the terms but
without a chart or graph). Everyone
(except those five or six) was bored
to tears. I couldn't understand why
anyone even came to the meetings. I
didn't join, though I belong to quite
a few groups.
When I went back to M.U.N.C.H. I
noticed our meetings were getting
like that (though not yet as bad).
When meetings started to get down
to three and four members present, I
knew drastic changes had to take
place.
So what did we do to renew
membership and keep it active?
First, we started having user
workshops. Things we normal types
wanted the computer for. Most people
want to do something with
wordprocessing or graphics. (PRINT
SHOP is, after all, the most popular
home computer program on the market -
for other computers.) Desktop
publishing it's being called, and it
is just that. We started giving
workshops on FUNNELWEB and PLUS! and
CFS and TI-ARTIST and FONTWRITER,
primarily, because people owned these
programs or were seriously
considering getting them, and they
wanted to know how to use them. They
wanted to go slowly and in small
groups and ask lots of questions and
have things shown a few times.
People have a mistrust of manuals, no
matter how simple. (The ones that
are very simple seem too wordy; the
ones that are thin seem to assume too
much knowledge on the part of the
user.) People like to see things in
operation. They don'tcarehow the
TV or the car or the microwave or the
washing machine work. They only want
to be able to use the things. For
most people, this is also true of
computers. And for the TI in
particular because most purchasers
bought it for home and as their first
computer experience.
We tried to provide for these 99ers,
but we first had to get them back.
We improved the newsletter:
increased the number of pages,
eliminated the repitious or
irrelevant materials, tried to
jampack it with goodies from all the
exchange newsletters and add graphics
and PROGRAMS TO TYPE IN whenever and
wherever possible.
Next we mailed them to ALL former
members inviting them back to the
fold.
We had coffee and goodies
available.
We greeted each new or returning
visitor at every meeting and pulled
them right into the pre-meeting group
discussions.
And had signs xeroxed. A batch
was given to each member present to
put anywhere and everywhere.
We increased our raffles; brought
back our text library, our
long-forgotten tape library and
dubber, our disk library.
At each meeting we begin with a
social time (to talk, eat, look at
the stuff for sale, for loan, for
raffle), pull everyone together for a
general filling-in of what the
workshops that night will be and a
filling-in of what's happening in our
computer's world. Lots of jokes and
fellowship. Then we have a short,
semi-formal meeting (president,
treasurer, secretary) and conduct the
workshops. Meetings begin officially
at 7. Most members arrive by 6:30.
We end abruptly at 9:30.
We gave a list of all members
names and addresses and phones to all
members.
There is much outside-the-club
contact. Many members belong to
other clubs, too, so there is a
greater sharing. If members show an
interest in Eproms, for example, they
can bring it up at a meeting and
request a workshop for those
interested.
The heart and the brain of the user
group (for ALL user groups) is the
newsletter. Without it, there is no
real user group. It is the connector
of members. It is the communicator.
It is the touchstone and signature of
each club around the world. The
newsletters are as individual and
quirky as the editors whose
remarkable dedication continues to
turn them out. You can tell from the
newsletter if the club is friendly
and worth joining.
The main ingredients in successful
user groups are the four F's:
FUN, FELLOWSHIP, FOOD, AND
FRIENDLINESS. When groups get away
from these qualities, they're fading
into the shadows. However, as
M.U.N.C.H. is proof, with a little
effort a group can leap back into the
light.
My 4A and I have been through a
lot together. We're good buddies.
It even sends me valentines.
Would an Apple have been that
loyal? An IBM? Ha!
And 4A and me, we've got a long,
long way yet to go.
Join us by joining (and
rejoining) your user group, go to the
meetings often, voice opinions, run
for office, staple the newsletters,
bring a cake. Something! Because
YOUarethe TI!
Ten years from now I hope you'll
be reading IMPACT/99 and sharing some
of our mutual trips down Memory Lane.
[This is the third of three
articles about the author's personal
experiences in the drama of 4Aing.]
[Jack Sughrue, Box 459, E.Douglas
MA 01516]
If any newsletter editor prints
these IMPACT/99 articles, please put
me on your mailing list. Thanks -
JS
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