Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!alembic!csu
From: csu@alembic.acs.com (Dave Mack)
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: Re: Call for discussion, SCI.VIRTUAL-WORLDS
Message-ID: <1989Nov27.071647.15618@alembic.acs.com>
Date: 27 Nov 89 07:16:47 GMT
References: <7025@ficc.uu.net> <830004@otter.hpl.hp.com> <14720@well.UUCP> <1989Nov25.195904.8008@alembic.acs.com>
Reply-To: csu@alembic.acs.com (Dave Mack)
Organization: Alembic Computer Services, McLean VA
Lines: 59
Uucp-Path: uunet!alembic!csu

In article <1989Nov25.195904.8008@alembic.acs.com> I wrote:
>It bothers me that both Jacobson and Rheingold are posting from the Well.
>It's not like UofW isn't on the Internet. Doesn't HITL have any computers?
>
>Part of what makes this proposed group more than just an attempt to
>move alt.cyberspace into the central hierarchies is the cachet that
>comes from having it proposed by people who are actually doing research
>into virtual reality as a serious scientific endeavor.
>
>The fact that the two principle proponents of the group don't post
>through washington.edu makes me wonder if we aren't being spoofed
>just a bit.

I received several bits of e-mail explaining the situation, including the
following from Bob Jacobson, excerted with his permission:

    Dave,

    Howard Rheingold and I are coming through The WELL to post our
    messages regarding the proposed newsgroup, sci.virtual-worlds,
    for two reasons.

    First, we have been communicating via The WELL about the topics
    at hand for over two years.  The community of thinkers with whom
    we most often discourse is The WELL community, and it is simply
    more convenient to do our normal WELL messaging and then go to
    Usenet, rather than to log off The WELL, log onto the UW machine,
    invoke rn, and do Usenet there.

    Second, my home computer, an Eagle, is totally incompatible with
    the UW Unix machines and no one can figure out how to make it
    work well.  I am totally unable to do any editing via the UW
    machines.  This situation will shortly be rectified by my purchase
    of a Mac SE, for which a readily available interface exists.  You
    may start seeing me as cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu at that
    time.

    Until then, I prefer to use The WELL, which is not only compatible
    but which offers superb editing tools that are not available via
    the Unix machines.

    If and when we have permission to start the new newsgroup, Howard
    and I will both be transferring to the Internet through UW, whose
    administrator has given us permission to host the sci.virtual-
    worlds conference from Milton (a hyperfast Vax).  

    [...]

    Explanation enough?  We're not joshing the Usenet community.  We
    do want to get sci.virtual-worlds up and running.  And we want to
    do it responsibly and well.


That's good enough for me, people. My apologies to any and all who
thought my comments were a slur on the integrity of the proposers
of sci.virtual-worlds.

-- 
Dave Mack