[Tig] 2X1 SD HD-SDI switch?

[Rob Lingelbach]

> Cue advertising free for all !!!
>
> Graham Collett
> Sprockets(telecine) Ltd
> www.sprockets-telecine.co.uk


Hi Graham, and the TIG,  I was thinking along the same lines.

To be delicate about this, because we want everyone who is involved in  
the TIG to stay involved, there have been guidelines in place for many  
years, and the recent posts have come close- within a whisker- of  
being beyond acceptable.  I thought though that they were whisker- 
compliant: acceptable, though see below.

First point would be that, with a large list of now 1600+ subscribers,  
and with a nod to the lessons of Usenet in the 80s and 90s, it is best  
for all involved, when messages end up in your inbox, to limit what  
could be considered spam.  We want the TIG to be free of marketing,  
free of advertising/spam, to the extent possible.   I'll leave that  
definition dormant for now and consider the recent postings, to which  
the following information applies; please, note that when in doubt as  
to the appropriateness of a posting, send it to me first, and I'll  
recommend the action suitable for its provenance.

Here are the guidelines as stated on the TIG Notes on Advertising.
http://www.colorist.org/wiki3/index.php/Notes_on_TIG_Advertising

	• Notes on TIG Advertising
This is lifted directly from a message to the main TIG mailinglist, to  
be found also in the archives.
There has been some renewed confusion on the TIG regarding the  
policies on advertising/marketing. This question comes up periodically  
and is worth revisiting.
Advertising is not permitted on the main TIG mailinglist. If, in your  
zeal for a particular product, you want to deflect impressions of  
impropriety, disclaim your message at the end, e.g.: "I am not in the  
employ or service of the manufacturer(s) above". Advertising by  
manufacturer/vendors who have contributed to the TIG is permitted on  
the tig-announce list (send postings to rob (at) colorist.org); this  
is a digested mailinglist published every three days or so, and sent  
to TIG subscribers.
Manufacturers and vendors have participated in the TIG since shortly  
after it started in 1992. It was, at that time, a controversial change  
to allow them in, as it tended to stifle the exchanges we had been  
having in complaining about equipment. But the consensus was that the  
benefits were worth it, and this has been proved. If one looks at the  
way Usenet functions (Usenet being a distributed conferencing system  
similar to the TIG and TIG/wiki), the professional groups have not  
allowed advertising and by self-policing or in some cases moderation  
insisted that a post that gives seemingly self-serving advice be  
disclaimed such that the author is not financially connected directly  
with the products or services being offered. Another example of an  
unbiased network is the Public Broadcasting System in the US, which  
keeps advertising limited to simple statements, such as what the main  
TIG mailinglist includes at the top of every message, the  
"contributor's credit."
In 1995 or so, we (the group) decided to allow advertising but not on  
the main mailinglist, instead on a separate "tig-announce" digest that  
would be sent out to all TIG subscribers separately, so they could  
keep a division in their mail between marketing and the main,  
original, information-based list. This has worked well over the years  
but has perhaps been underused. The only requirement for participation  
by a manufacturer/vendor in the tig-announce digest is a contribution  
to the TIG, and this contribution has no strict lower limit, and can  
be scaled to work with budgets. This is a difference between some  
other internet-based groups and the TIG.
A couple of years after the tig-announce digest was started, we  
created a wiki, (originally it ran TWiki software) which has gone  
through three main iterations. The wiki can be used by any registered  
user as a "pull" type of mechanism (as opposed to the TIG  
mailinglist's "push" model) so large files, images, commercial  
announcements, etc. can be web-based. It was originally thought that  
this might replace the mailinglist, but email remains the primary  
means of communication on the net, though as a primary it has been  
diluted significantly by spam. Spam has in its turn spawned antispam  
software which is an industry in its own right; if one thinks  
seriously about this it becomes clear that the antispam industry  
depends on the proliferation of spam for its income, so the two are in  
a sycophantic relationship, or have an inherently strong mutual  
interest. The same is true of viruses and anti-virus software...
I mention the spam/virus factor to illustrate why the TIG tries to  
keep its main mailinglist commercial-free, and to use the annexed tig- 
announce mailinglist for commercial/marketing posts.
Private, individual "For Sale," "Wanted," "Jobs Offered," and  
"Positions Desired" postings are accepted on an individual basis, and  
go out to the main list, sometimes after a contribution (in the case  
of For Sale ads) but often not (in the other cases). These are  
distinct private-party classifieds. The example of newspapers'  
classifieds sections is appropriate here; in the USA, private party  
ads come under different rules than those from dealers and  
manufacturers.
The last point is perhaps the most important: when a subscriber to the  
TIG needs information from a manufacturer, or help, or input of any  
kind, the manufacturer has two choices in how to respond: privately,  
or publicly on the mailinglist. Private responses are not in any way  
regulated by TIG rules. Public list-based responses are regulated by  
these simple rules: marketing is not allowed, in the sense of  
statements something like "See what we're offering this year at booth  
xxxx we have just what you're looking for" and personal abuse is not  
allowed. These rules are designed to keep the integrity of the TIG as  
high as possible, given that we're all human and make mistakes.. a  
further quasi-standards-based TIG etiquette guide is available at  
Guide to TIG Etiquette
Another analogy to how the TIG works can be found in the publishing of  
magazines. There exist magazines such as the SMPTE journal, and  
magazines such as Film and Video (it does still exist?). The former is  
commercial-free, the latter sometimes (often) functions as a PR organ  
for companies and vendors. Both are valuable, but the TIG fits  
somewhere between and closer to the SMPTE model, in shunting any  
marketing over to its supplemental tig- announce section.
--Rob Lingelbach 20:12, 21 March 2007 (PDT)

--
Rob Lingelbach
rob at colorist.org  http://www.colorist.org/robhome.html