Author: Todd Durham
Date: 17:06:33 03/25/99
OK, people, Bob Hyatt has left rgcc. But he is still here at CCC. He is still on the internet helping those with an honest desire to learn more about chess programming. In fact, according to his own final post, Crafty is sill going to be available to those with an interest, if not by ftp then through some other manner. So let us stop treating this as though someone had just died tragically. Instead, let's try to assess what damage has been done, and whether there is anything that we as a group can do about it. First, it would seem to me (and I confess I have only been involved in this for roughly a month) that the worst damage is to people who aren't yet involved in computer chess but who might gain an interest (as I did recently). At this point, they may well check out the usenet group rgcc, which is the easiest place to find for a discussion on the topic. I doubt many will last long at the rate rgcc is losing its more interesting and helpful citizens. Thus, the increasingly nasty tone at rgcc and the loss of Crafty as an easily available ftp download (a free download and a stop at the local library got me started) will cause most to lose interest in the subject before it can grow. (And I read today that Peter Klausler is considering taking CDB off of the internet as well. So two of the freeware mainstays may fall by the wayside.) These are the people most hurt by the present situation. (And I don't just mean Hyatt leaving. It was before I gained an interest in the subject, but apparently a LOT of valuable people had fled rgcc before Hyatt left.) The rest of us know where to go: http://www.icdchess.com/ccc/. But I doubt that many will find this site on there own. The web is just too big. The second big peice of damage, from what many have said in their postings, is the matter of convenience, as many would raher use a newsgroup reader than a web brouser. Of course, that only applies to those here. The third hit is one of ettiquette and manners. Try going through rgcc without looking at that posts of you_know_who AND ignoring all threads started by them or replies to their posts and suddenly rgcc is a pleasant place to be. With you_know_who it's quite stress inducing even if one isn't posting. And imagine if the interesting people started to return! One solution to this, and it is cerainly not new, is the creation of a moderated usenet group. As someone new to all this, I have a few questions on the matter: 1) How would one go about doing this? 2) Who would be the moderators? How would they be choosen? 3) Would there be any cost? 4) Who would the moderators be responsible to? (This is an important one!) 5) Are we just going to talk about it, or are we going to do something about it? Of course, this still doesn't put Crafy back on an anonymous ftp site. But that has more to do with copyright enforcement than anything else, if I understand correctly. I have no solutions to this, although Hyatt appears to be working on one. Are there other solutions? Let's put our minds to work on this and see what we can come up. And let's stop mourning the passing of Bob Hyatt because, gratefully, he hasn't really gone anywhere. He's just switched to eight-track. Hopefully, Todd Durham
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