Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ficc!peter
From: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: news.misc
Subject: Re: In Moderation
Message-ID: <4954@ficc.uu.net>
Date: 11 Jul 89 22:31:26 GMT
References: <8831@chinet.chi.il.us> <3300@epimass.EPI.COM> <197600001@inmet> <692@whizz.uucp>
Organization: Xenix Support, FICC
Lines: 48

In article <692@whizz.uucp>, bbh@whizz.uucp (Bud Hovell) writes:
> Both in this example and on the usenet, such submission is entirely voluntary
> on the part of the writer - unlike *any* printed medium in which editorial
> judgement (decision to print or reject the article) plays a dominant role
> in determining whether an article gets published.

You've obviously never heard of vanity presses, amateur press associations,
and other ego-publication media. amateur press associations (APAs) and fanzines
are almost a direct equivalent in print media of Usenet. One of the larger
APAs, Alarums and Excursions, even has overlapping writer- and readership
with Usenet.

Books published by vanity presses, zines in APAs, and fanzines are all
protected by copyright.

> [Academic] journals might be cited as a singular anomoly in this regard,
> since they are dominantly designed for getting academics published,
> merit having no place in the editor's decision-making process).

And what about peer review?

> Now the question is: is a submission to usenet more like a traditional
> 'article' comparable to what one would expect to read in an editorially
> controlled publication, or more like a 'letter' comparable to what one would
> find in the op-ed section?

Neither. It's more like a zine in an APA.

> Since the decision to release the 'article' is exclusively that of the person
> submitting it, I have difficulty understanding how anyone could conclude that
> in its raw form, such a 'work', stand-alone, would have identifiable market
> value, since there is no editor to make such judgment.

It has an identifiable market value. Many people spend hundreds of dollars a
month getting Usenet. Divide that by the article volume and you have a good
approximation of the market value of the average article.

> And the 'marketplace'
> gets no choice, since everything comes in together, (some) jewels and (much)
> garbage.

As opposed to the newspaper, where everything comes in together, some jewels
and much garbage.
-- 
Peter da Silva, Xenix Support, Ferranti International Controls Corporation.
Business: peter@ficc.uu.net, +1 713 274 5180. | Th-th-th-that's all folks...
Personal: peter@sugar.hackercorp.com.   `-_-' |  -- Mel Blanc
Quote: Have you hugged your wolf today?  'U`  |     May 30 1908 - Jul 10 1989