On Sunday 11 January 2004 18:23, Wayne Stallwood wrote:
On Sunday 11 January 2004 12:58, MJ Ray wrote:
Would the author of http://www.alug.org.uk/contrib/?ComparisonInEastAnglia like to at least add their name to the page, please? I'd like it if someone could verify the claims about NPCUG and add other groups. I suspect the jibe under "piracy" is grossly unfair.
As much as I hate censorship, I think this page should be removed. Regardless of whether the claims made about NPCUG are true or not (I don't know) Making such claims on our Website strikes me as a little childish and in my opinion refelects badly on ALUG itself.
As a member of both groups I've passed the URL of the page to the NPCUG guys and will provide any feedback I receive from them. Some personal comment on the page itself:
NPCUG is a group with a formal constitution, unlike the looser association of ALUG. We meet monthly at the British Legion Club and don't charge on the door; the annual subs go mainly to paying for the room (that's why we don't allow people to come in freely). The group owns a couple of computers and about 7 monitors, which are set up for each meeting to provide a view for the 20-30 people who attend.
The membership is somewhat older than ALUG, with a high proportion of retired people. Few are computer professionals. Although most people run Windows there is an interest in Linux - we've had a couple of talks on the subject - and several members run Linux experimentally.
We don't have an email list because nobody in the group knows how to set one up. The level of computer knowledge is well below that of ALUG; new members are often complete novices. There's generally no need to bring a computer to meetings because there's already one set up.
I don't think any of the ALUG comment page is bad, except for the bit about the parrot, which as a joke is a bit of a failure, rather down at the Ken Dodd level. Piracy is not encouraged; the group goes to some trouble to put together a relevant freeware CD-ROM and demonstrates Open Source products when there's no obviously better commercial product.
--- GT