RE: BATTLE OF THE FRAMERS LISTS -- IT'S SOLVING ITSELF

[Chuck Hastings <cwh2@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Esteemed Framers,

As a lowly bystander in this verbal war, let me record just
one significant observation, which I haven't seen mentioned
yet by any of you more high-powered FrameMaker folks.
It concerns the activity levels of the respective Framers lists.

Since just before Christmas 2001, I've gotten 206 messages
posted to framers@omsys  (Free Framers, aka FF).
(To be exact, since 21 December 2001, when I got my
email service up and running on a newly-arrived computer.)

Of those, 83 were also cross-posted to framers@FrameUsers
(`official'  Framers, aka FU).  (Incidentally, I received each
of these messages just once, not twice.  Until someone smarter
gives me a more erudite explanation, I'm still assuming
that my Netscape Messenger 4.79 email program is filtering
out the duplicate messages for me.)

I got exactly 4 messages which went only to FU, and none
of those even had an explicit non-suppressed distribution list.

The obvious conclusion is that FF is where the action is
now -- never mind that it has fewer people signed up,
apparently, than FU.  I stay on both lists so that I see
everything that goes by.  But I would have missed very
little, had I only been registered on FF.  Had I only been
registered on FU, I would have missed 60% of the
messages flying by.

Quite obviously, the FrameMaker community is doing
the electronic equivalent of voting with its feet.  I'm not
aware of all of the reasons.  But there seems to be a
definite historical process at work here, which in time
will make FU irrelevant to the FrameMaker community,
whether or not it runs ads or excludes politically-incorrect
subscribers or whatever.  That's how things are supposed
to work in a free society.

Best regards,

Chuck Hastings      cwh2@earthlink.net


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