From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=MAILING_LIST_MULTI, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 24218 invoked from network); 5 Apr 2021 07:49:20 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (45.79.103.53) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 5 Apr 2021 07:49:20 -0000 Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 29F1F9CAB9; Mon, 5 Apr 2021 17:49:15 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4EAAB9CA5B; Mon, 5 Apr 2021 17:48:17 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 3FDC69CA5B; Mon, 5 Apr 2021 17:48:12 +1000 (AEST) Received: from freefriends.org (freefriends.org [96.88.95.60]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 9D55D9C883 for ; Mon, 5 Apr 2021 17:48:11 +1000 (AEST) X-Envelope-From: arnold@skeeve.com Received: from freefriends.org (freefriends.org [96.88.95.60]) by freefriends.org (8.14.7/8.14.7) with ESMTP id 1357m8Uk026934 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=NOT); Mon, 5 Apr 2021 01:48:08 -0600 Received: (from arnold@localhost) by freefriends.org (8.14.7/8.14.7/Submit) id 1357m710026933; Mon, 5 Apr 2021 01:48:07 -0600 From: arnold@skeeve.com Message-Id: <202104050748.1357m710026933@freefriends.org> X-Authentication-Warning: frenzy.freefriends.org: arnold set sender to arnold@skeeve.com using -f Date: Mon, 05 Apr 2021 01:48:07 -0600 To: cowan@ccil.org, clemc@ccc.com References: <20210401145025.GA1202@naleco.com> <20210404052939.xivuinlcugqb5zde@localhost.localdomain> In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Heirloom mailx 12.5 7/5/10 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: [TUHS] Whither Usenix [was How To Kill A Technical Conference] X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Cc: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" This hits home with me very hard. I have been a Usenix member since the around 1984. Almost 40 years. I am finally letting my membership drop, now that ";login:" is going soft-copy. But for several years now I have been increasingly dissatisfied with the research nature of most of the articles. Very few of them are actually useful (or even interesting) to me in a day-to-day sense. And this saddens me; I used to be proud to be a Usenix member; I no longer feel like I get any added value. Especially as I live out of the US, attending conferences is impossible. (The last annual conference I went to was in 2004.) Ah well. The only constant in the world is change. Arnold John Cowan wrote: > On Sun, Apr 4, 2021 at 2:23 PM Clem Cole wrote: > > > An issue during the time you are discussing, USENIX had evolved into "two > > foci" between the practitioners (which included both FOSS community and > > LISA types) and the more academic-oriented folks looking for respected > > places to publish papers/develop their tenure files. > > > > I think this is a long and accelerating trend, and not just at > conferences. There simply are no venues for "engineering" papers or > presentations any more, which doesn't bother me directly, but bothers me > very much indirectly, because I love engineering papers and have to read > academic papers, ummm, very selectively. (In particular, anything labeled > "formal semantics" just gets skipped.) > > John Cowan http://vrici.lojban.org/~cowan cowan@ccil.org > And it was said that ever after, if any man looked in that Stone, > unless he had a great strength of will to turn it to other purpose, > he saw only two aged hands withering in flame. --"The Pyre of Denethor"