Greg writes:

>Thanks for all of the input on this. Note to self: self, next time steal
>jokes from less subtle comedians.

It's not that I didn't catch the "subtlety" of the joke. It was just more
interesting as an open and honest question than as a sophomoric joke.


> Stan, you've GOT to stop holding back. Let your feelings
>  go! It'll be healthier for you in the long run.

In this I agree with Greg. Stan's railings at Denys' irrelevancy are
themselves an irrelevant waste of time and energy on Stan's part, irrelevant
in the sense that Interex itself is rapidly becoming the irrelevancy. All
Stan really needs do is just wait a couple of years. We're nearly now at the
end game. Interex, in its current form, isn't going to last much longer.

Interex has been in this transition period for quite some time now that it
wants to divorce itself from the users. It just hasn't had the wherewithall
(or the courage) to find the words to tell the users that, directly to their
faces.

Interex wants to become Greyhound Exposition Services, a mere putter-on of
technical expositions, unencumbered by allegiances to any single product,
vendor or group. It wants to be nothing more. If you read carefully what they
have repeatedly said over the past 10 years, they've been telling you this
quite plainly. It's just that most people have been reading the material that
Interex puts out through the rose-colored gauze of seeing (and still
believing) that Interex is a user-group.

Interex is not that now, and it hasn't been for some time that. And it
certainly doesn't want to be that in the future. Interex is a corporation
whose first duty is to promote its own survival and to maximize its profits
and salaries of the owners (whoever they may be). Appointing appropriately
conducive directors is the first step in the last act of Interex ridding
itself of the users.

I actually have no problem with Interex taking this tack -- if they would do
it openly and honestly. Personally, I don't think there is a great deal of
wisdom inherent to their stated goals, but it would at least wash away the
multitude of layers of hypocrisy that overlay the current situation.

And it would allow a new HP3000-oriented users' group to form.

Wirt Atmar