The Hotline Users Digest #183 - Monday, May 19, 1997

  Warez/PC Port Stuff
          by heckley <heckley@usa.net>
  Re: Warez/PC Port Stuff
          by Orya <orya@mailzone.com>
  Re: Recognizing Mac Servers
          by Adam Hinkley <hinks@netspace.net.au>


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Subject: Warez/PC Port Stuff
From: heckley <heckley@usa.net> (by way of Phil Hilton)
Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 08:59:01 -0400

Ok, the first thing that I would like to talk about is the continued piracy
issue on hotline.  This is going to happen no matter what.  There isn't
anything you can do, so just let it go.  First class is the only other
major BBS-type thing for mac that i can think of, and it has a good deal
more warez than hotline.  The only reason why this is a subject on hotline
is because of trackers.  What really needs to be done is a clear seperation
of warez and legal trackers on hotline.  This is good for both sides so it
shouldn't be too hard.  The reason that this needs to be done is because of
the fact that warez servers keep signing up with a few of the legal
trackers.  This leads to normal hotlineans going to a tracker and thinking
"oh my, those evil warez people have taken over this nice client server
architecture."  The way that this should be accomplished is pretty simple.
Just allow some method for several people who are not sitting at the
machine where the tracker is to kick sites.  Basically, just have a kick
option for sites on the tracker window, and when you click it, it would ask
for a password and if you knew it, it would kick the site.  Just an idea...

The second thing that i'd like to start an argument...err...discuss is the
issue of the Mac/PC thing.  I personally am a mac extremist and laugh at
people on the other side of the tracks, however, there is a definite
advantage to being only mac.  Obviously discussion so far about mac vs pc
has only been:
"gee, people who think macs suck or pcs suck are from aol"
"hehe yeah, we're too cool for that"
...however, if you actually look at the issue, you notice that hotline has
a very strong mac structure.  It has specialized mac windows.  It has all
mac users.  It has mac icons.  It has all mac discussions.  You get the
point.  When the PC users come, the atmosphere where people sorta go to
chat and say "look at this extention that i just found, its really fun" or
"gee, you should try this mac shareware" etc might be lost.  It just isn't
as fun if there are two platforms because you end up chatting something
like this...
"hey, i just found a kewl shareware game"
"wow, is it a side scroller"
"yeah, of course"
"gee, where is it?"
"www.somegamecompany.com/powergame.exe"
"ack, its a pc game."
...and the news might be hurt too.  No more postings about system updates
and when things are coming to mac.  Up til now its been an all mac utopia
where everything has been on the mac side...what'll happen when the PC
users come?

I really hope this doesn't fall to an all out flame war over platforms,
mainly because i'll get in trouble but also because no one will win and
we'll all get really angry at each other.    however, we really need to
figure out how to solve the conflicts that will suddenly appear when the
people come...
a)  how will people figure out on the tracker whether the site is PC or
Mac?  Its incredibly stupid to assume that the people will have both or
that the people will really post whether they're pc or mac.  Think about it
this way, how many pc files do YOU have on your machine...
b)  i suppose this is mroe of a question for administrators, but how will
the files be divided up?
c)  should the PC version come before another version of hotline?
d)  ...and a question that's been nagging me: will a PC version be able to
optimize the transfer speeds on PC and actually attract power users like it
does on mac?
e)  won't a PC version be incredibly hard to program?  everything in
hotline is directly mac related.  how does a file test to see if its being
downloaded from the same place?  the ip is in the get info box.  how are
icons put in the user window?  they're in the resources of hotline.  how do
users get info on a file in hotline?  they get a get info box exactly like
in the finder.  how are toolbars and user icons files made?  they're made
in resedit and they are resource files, again...are we getting the point
yet?

__________________________.
|                                                    |
|   moof@cyberjunkie.com              |
|                                                    |
|  "Hotline - So fast, it can run an  |
|       infinite loop in six seconds...  |
|__________________________)



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Subject: Re: Warez/PC Port Stuff
From: Orya <orya@mailzone.com> (by way of Phil Hilton)
Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 19:20:50 -0400

heckley (5/18/97 7:59 AM,heckley@usa.net) said:

>a)  how will people figure out on the tracker whether the site is PC or
>Mac?  Its incredibly stupid to assume that the people will have both or
>that the people will really post whether they're pc or mac.  Think about it
>this way, how many pc files do YOU have on your machine...


I think people should have the option of saying if they are for mac or pc
even if they are on the opposite platform, because, for example, I may
want to run the Hotline Server on the computer I don't use (the PC) and
use that PC to hold all the mac shareware on the server.



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Subject: Re: Recognizing Mac Servers
From: Adam Hinkley <hinks@netspace.net.au>
Date: Mon, 19 May 97 12:34:55 +1000


I'm not even going to comment on this until the wintel version is 
actually available.

...........................................................
 /|  _
/ | | |                     Adam Hinkley
| |_| |                     CEO/Software Development
|  _  | O T L I N E
| | | |COMMUNICATIONS       adam@HotlineSW.com
|_| | |                     http://www.HotlineSW.com/
    |/


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