Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ginosko!usc!apple!rutgers!njin!princeton!phoenix!vnend
From: vnend@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (D. W. James)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: The Dynamics of Debate on USENET
Message-ID: <10672@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 2 Oct 89 22:45:44 GMT
References: <35033@apple.Apple.COM> <22877@looking.on.ca>
Reply-To: vnend@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (D. W. James)
Organization: Princeton University, NJ
Lines: 39

In article <22877@looking.on.ca> brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton) writes:
)That cause has become clear to me over the years.

	Oh no...
 
)That cause is answered by answering the question "why do we post to USENET?"
)Naturally, the answer is, "to get a response."  Posters want to feel part
)of a community -- posting into a vacuum would quickly bore people.

	Some people certainly post for that reason.  (gee, I wonder who
would think that that is the reason people post...)  But not all of us.
Some of us post to share our opinions, our views.  To make public facts
that not all are aware of.  We couldn't care less about getting public
responces.

	Once, again, just because something is true for one person 
doesn't mean that it can generalized to everyone.  Or even a majority.

 
)So we all tend to be just a little bit more outrageous and provocative in
)our writings to the net than we would be in normal life.  We all write,
)perhaps unconsciously, in a deliberate attempt to evoke a response.

	Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

 
)Of course, in my own personal case, it is ironic that even though I
)noticed this in myself and others several years ago, and worked to tone down
)what I saw in myself, I have recently had to endure several flame wars.
)Those, however, have been about what I have done rather than they way I
)wrote my postings.

	Ok, so you started *acting* in a way that provokes a responce...

-- 
Later Y'all,  Vnend                       Ignorance is the mother of adventure.   
SCA event list? Mail?  Send to:vnend@phoenix.princeton.edu or vnend@pucc.bitnet   
        Anonymous posting service (NO FLAMES!) at vnend@ms.uky.edu                    
       "First, they stood guard over us.  Then, they sat guard over us.                 Then they wandered off to find some corn plasters and we escaped."