[HECnet] Creating a Community

Hi, A while back myself and a couple of other HECnet list members discussed here a need for an alternative discussion forum for some of the less DECnet-related topics we (and especially I) had raised recently. There was some talk about a Notes-based list but talk about that seemed to fade, so I considered starting another e-mail list, and having attended DEC Legacy I was sure there would be some uptake. So I have started out on something I hope will become big. I am announcing the launch of the first small step in what will be a bigger project. As of today http://DECtec.info is officially live. My first step is to get a simple (and it is simple) website up and running and start a mailing list to provide that alternative forum for discussion. The list is active and you can subscribe right away. Details and guidelines (pretty-much the usual caveats) are at: http://DECtec.info/mailing-list.html Now I am aware there are newsgroups and mailing lists out there already that are well established, such as comp.os.vms, comp.sys.dec, various alt.sys.* lists, CCTalk and others, but I have two issues. Stuff on 'Usenet' is not as easy to get at as it used to be. Sure there's Google Groups for a lot of it but it's frankly horrible. Secondly, because a lot of it concentrates on specific systems it gets a bit spread out. CCTalk/CCTech also is a great, great list but for someone like me who is only after DEC related info it's got a massive signal to noise ratio problem. I am aware some people just join all of them and I'm pretty sure those people are probably crying into there cornflakes right now muttering 'not *another* list/site/so-called-community', but I want DECtec.info to be different in a few ways: - More relaxed atmosphere. DEC Legacy was a blast, just a bunch of vary various, enthusiastic and knowledgable people in one place. I learnt so much there I wanted to keep it going somewhere where we could constantly tap on each others knowledge about the many and various aspects of DEC systems, OS, software and crazy stories. Yes the list will be moderated as any list has to be but I'm not a draconian dictator, banter (as long as it's friendly) and some slight wandering us fine, sometimes it even makes for a better atmosphere. - Build a place to store knowledge. A mailing list is a great start and the archives over time will fill with plenty of knowledge, I am sure. But I don't want to stop there. I want to build a central knowledge base. I'm new to DEC and to it's ins and outs. I found it incredibly hard to get a foothold in the community. That bugs me - the number of people like me who are enthusiastic and interested have, for example, told me it's really hard to get a VMS license. It's not, it's really not, what's hard is finding someone who can tell you WHERE to get one, and keep that information up to date. Some of the knowledge is out there on the net but half of it is in people's heads and the other half is out of date. Furthermore, because a lot of certainly VMS-related stuff is still applicable to commercial interests there are walls and hurdles for Hobbyists that slow down or obfuscate the transfer of knowledge that isn't commercially sensitive but for some reason doesn't seem to be 'out there' either. I had a simple idea. Build a Wiki. Every time you learn something new, or teach someone something they didn't know, copy and paste it to the Wiki. Even if you don't format it or type it out in pretty Wiki code it doesn't matter, the information is there. I can (or I can get volunteers to if it gets too much) do the fancy stuff to make it look pretty. - Empower events. DEC Legacy was a great event. We should do it again, Mark says we probably will, and I want to support that. What I think was slightly lacking was an idea forum for the event. Sure it was pretty informal but it doesn't stop us talking ahead of the event and maybe planning out some stuff or even just establishing who's bringing what machines, and who needs help with what. So I hope some people here feel inspired. I know it's a big idea and I'm a small workforce, but we all have to start somewhere and I start here. -- Mark Benson http://DECtec.info Twitter: @DECtecInfo Online Resource & Mailing List for DEC Enthusiasts.