[10472] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Message From Michael Hart About Flames
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (PACS-L Moderator)
Wed Jul 31 20:52:10 1996
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 1996 19:01:06 -0500 (CDT)
From: PACS-L Moderator <libpacs@UH.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>From: "Michael S. Hart" <hart@prairienet.org>
>Subject: Message From Michael Hart About Flames
>
>As many of you are aware, there are several people, who MAY have the
>best of intentions, who flame me regularly all over the Net and Web,
>and I take this opportunity on July 31, of each year to reply to the
>assortment of notes that are normally beneath the level of life that
>I wish to live. You are welcome not to read this reply, especially,
>if you are already aware of how icky the flames really are.
>
>1.
>A lot of the flames are from people who want me to do things in some
>manner other than I am. . .these are NOT suggestions, they are would
>be controllers of me, my work, etc., and the notes DEMAND that I may
>only be allowed to continue my existence on this electronic frontier
>if I do things their way.
>
>The major factors of these messages are that I join their causes, in
>some virtual conspiracy to promote their favorite markup schemes, in
>particual, SGML, HTML, TEI, .pdf, .gzip, Mac, UNIX, or various other
>ways of creating and disseminating etexts.
>
>My answer to this is the same as it always has been, but not as this
>answer always will be, that I use Plain Vanilla ASCII, a term that a
>person invented to describe exactly what I use to send information--
>and thus should be more or less immune to what others think it would
>mean if THEY controlled what it meant.
>
>PVASCII is just what you see here, it doesn't use markup to create a
>semblance of features not included in the character set we all use--
>but which certain elitists would like to force all people to use, in
>their attempts to control who gets what kind of information, and the
>format in which they get it.
>
>The reason, I don't want to leave out any more people than I have to
>in my efforts to communicate with the world at large, of the billion
>or so computers in the world, only a very small percentage will read
>any particular markup format, though there is a huge trend toward an
>HTML takeover, but most computers still don't have HTML readers.
>
>When over half of the computer users in the world are using HTML, or
>whatever replaces it as the front runner, I will make a real effort,
>without any requests or demands being necessary, to provide material
>in a manner that gives more information in that format than in Plain
>Vanilla ASCII. We have experimented with various formats, and would
>like to report that none of them have received much feedback that we
>would consider a motivation to do more in those areas, but we should
>continue experimenting, and making information available in the ways
>people would like to receive it.
>
>The fact is that marked up files are just not very portable, so I am
>still having to refuse the requests that I make a huge effort for an
>etext library that would be specifially tailored to those above, but
>would leave out most of the rest of the world.
>
>Thus I shake the dust of these requests off, and proceed on August 1
>back to the work that is the most accessible.
>
>2.
>In the same vein, I receive requests that demand that I include some
>information from particular editions or editors, including header or
>footer information, page numbers, various degrees of italics, bolds,
>underlines, em-dashes, single and double quotes, printing history or
>any of a number of other items specific to a particular edition, AND
>including the requests that I leave in all the ERRORS from that book
>as it was published by THAT editor and printed by THAT printer.
>
>My response is that etexts don't have pages, and thus have little or
>no need for page numbers. . .the text is much easier to read with an
>entirely complete flow, not interrupted every 50 to 100 lines with a
>page number, chapter title, book title, author's name, or whatever--
>BUT--I had given each of these people permission, and encouragement,
>to add these items themselves, and offered to post their new edition
>free of charge, to the public.
>
>What they really want, of course, is not to do the work themselves--
>even though we have already done the vast majority of this work, but
>rather to control the work we are doing. So lazy, but still want to
>appear to be the driver of the train when they never laid a rail, or
>a tie, or blasted out a tunnel, or built a bridge, to create what is
>essentially a Transcontinental Railroad.
>
>I don't want electronic texts to be mere copies of paper editions, a
>copy that must remain faithful to the form constraints of the paper,
>with so many hyphens at the ends of lines, simply to save one sheet,
>at the end of the book, to save the publisher less than on penny.
>
>I don't want to preserve the errors created by authors, editors, and
>printers who used to substitute whatever letter was close to the one
>they just ran out of.
>
>I don't want footnotes in the middle of the book, I want them at the
>end. . .on a computer the time it takes to jump from the text to the
>footnote and back is so minimal that it doesn't matter.
>
>When the people who have selected these books want them a particular
>way, I don't insist on changing their work. . .it is THEIR work, but
>I think it might be worthwhile to create a SEPARATE electronic text,
>for those who want a different format.
>
>I encourage those who would demand I bend to their wills to do these
>exact same things, or to eat hot electrons. . .the choice is theirs.
>
>***
>
>How these things are laid out by the editors and printers are NOT an
>elementary canonical feature of the information, they are merely the
>choices made by particular editors and printers, they are NOT what a
>person writing an original work put down on the page.
>
>Do I think editors perform a worthwhile function?
>
>You bet!
>
>Do I have to agree?
>
>No.
>
>Do paper publishers have to only copy previous paper editions?
>
>No.
>
>These people simply and plainly want control.
>
>They want you to only read their favorite editions.
>
>This is censorship.
>
>
>3.
>To those who call me stupid who disagree with them, I merely say the
>obvious: anyone who does something that has never been done, is the
>most disagreeing person of all, they don't agree that the way it has
>been done is the way it should be done. . .but they don't try to say
>that other people should change what they are doing, they change the
>way they do it themselves, and if the world agrees, they have a life
>that is beyond what others even try to reach, and if they fail, they
>can always try again.
>
>
>4. To those who would drown me in trivia and quadrivia and politics
>I say that I simply step aside and leave these to you, at least when
>I can. . .if you get too much power over me, then I strike back high
>and hard. . .if you get too much power over others, I provide what I
>call an alternative.
>
>
>I will be dead in another 20 years or so, and might not have much of
>an impact after another 10 years or so.
>
>But these people can't wait that long, they want to stop me now.
>
>Simply because I believe that there should be a Public Domain and in
>the public's right to easy access to the Public Domain, and willing,
>and ready, and able, to make it my career to create this access.
>
>Some of them, incredibly inHumanist, even want to make sure all text
>files created or distributed by me are deleted from indexes, so that
>people can't find them.
>
>Talk about censorship!
>
>
>***
>
>I have used the first person here because I take all the credits for
>the things people do NOT like, while passing on all the positives to
>those who help me. They really do deserve all the credit, as it can
>only be too obvious that one person could not do all the work.
>
>All I did was start the wheel rolling, other people paved the roads,
>paved the way, powered the engine, etc. Alone, I could possibly get
>out perhaps one book a week, and would be ready for a straightjacket
>after a few years.
>
>However, other people have tried to rule the pavement something like
>the signs on the concrete superhighways that exclude pedestrians and
>bicycles, and low powered motorcycles, farm implements, etc.
>
>Of course, the road was created by pedestrians, etc., before all the
>horsepower created a new upper crust that want everything to be toll
>boothed at every possible intersection.
>
>***
>
>Oh well, I hope none of these people are offended because I left out
>their particular beef about me, my life, my work, etc.
>
>Where's the beef?
>
>Right here.
>
>***
>
>Michael S. Hart
>
>This note, as are all my July 31 yearly responses to flames,
>was written live, online, without a spellchecker, etc.
>
>There are people who will tell you that if I make an error--
>spelling, punctuation, or otherwise, that you should not pay
>any attention.
>
>Form vs. Content
>
>That is the battle they are claiming. . .but it isn't really
>the battle they are fighting. . .
>
>Life is an open book test, and they want to close the books.
>
>
