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Path: utzoo!linus!security!genrad!decvax!minow
From: minow@decvax.UUCP (Martin Minow)
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: On the creation of net.motss (ennui?)
Message-ID: <310@decvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 19-Dec-83 19:00:28 EST
Article-I.D.: decvax.310
Posted: Mon Dec 19 19:00:28 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 20-Dec-83 06:39:16 EST
References: <2626@yale-com.UUCP>
Organization: DEC UNIX Engineering Group
Lines: 23

It has been suggested that net.motss was created "as if by
magic" after everybody got bored discussing whether it should
be created, and what it should be named.

From what I saw of the discussion, it seemed that the "net
community" was searching publicly for a consensus and the
newsgroup appeared after, and only after, a consesus that
all could live with was reached.  Thus, the people who
opposed discussion of homosexuality on a semi-public forum
(just you, me, and NSA) could accept a group whose function
wasn't blatently apparent from its name.  Also, the people
who wanted open discussion of the issue could accept the
existence of the group lightly disguised.

What I found fascinating about the discussion -- and what
I wished DeBenedictis had mentioned in his excellent paper --
was the way the discussion compressed the entire "homosexuality
comes out of the closet" phenomenon of the last five or six
years into a few weeks.

Martin Minow
decvax!minow