> From: Laine Stump <laine@v-one.com>
>
> I'm sending this message to port-alpha because I'm concerned that my email
> to Thor isn't getting through (I used the address in the Cc above). Has
> anyone else received notification from him about the Alpha motherboards? He
> said to contact him if we didn't hear back by Tuesday night, which I did.
> Still no replies. Is he really that swamped with requests, or has my email
> been lost?
>
> Thanks, and sorry for the intrusion.

I've talked to him, he is swamped, and he will get back to us when he can.

This wasn't a money-making opportunity for Thor, he was just trying to
forward an order approximately at cost for his friends. And any left-over
money was going to be donated to netbsd.

If two different people hadn't forwarded his offer to freebsd lists, those
of us here (serious freebsd and netbsd people alike) would probably have
our boards by now, and the whole matter would be closed.

By forcing the maker of a philanthropic offer to do many times more work
than he offered to do shows that the crossposters either didn't read the
original mail, and thought it was a commercial offer, or they just didn't
care, or they selfishly thought they would get a better price by manipulating
the original offer, or they just Did Not Think at All.

Anyway, instead the offer was widely circulated among a more disparate group
of people. Thor was buried with orders, questions, and lots of crude rip-off
attempts by people demanding "evaluations" and insisting that he correspond
with them personally.

As a result, the very nature of his task was made considerably more complex
for a number of reasons.  I'm sure he will post when more information is
available.

I'm also sure he will never do this again, and that's a pity. Let's hope
he can bash on through this one ordeal.

	Ross.Harvey@Computer.Org