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Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/17/84 chuqui version 1.7 9/23/84; site nsc.UUCP
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From: chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.news
Subject: Re: Silence on the net
Message-ID: <2729@nsc.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 20-May-85 00:04:26 EDT
Article-I.D.: nsc.2729
Posted: Mon May 20 00:04:26 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 20-May-85 19:13:39 EDT
References: <1167@ratex.UUCP> <5723@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Reply-To: chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach)
Distribution: net
Organization: The Courts of Chaos
Lines: 37
Xref: utcs net.politics:8820 net.news:2991
Summary: 

>>You can't draw conclusion from an instance of silence, but you can draw
>>conclusions from a pattern of silence.
>
>I'm sorry, but that just ain't true.

I have to agree with Charlie on this one. From my experience, lack of
response doesn't mean a thing, except possibly that nobody bothered
responding. In net administration, for example, it is possible for a
special interest group to generate an amazing amount of mail for whatever
they are interested in, while a group of people of the same relative size
generates almost nil. 

It is a common occurance out on the net that anytime someone opens their
mouth, all of the people on the other side proceed to jump into it, usually
loudly. All of the people on the same side tend to agree rather quietly,
unless a specific appeal is made. Trying to figure out what the 'group'
believes based on what is (or isn't) said on the net or in mail is silly at
worst, and an art at best, because you have to know enough of the people in
that group to know what they might say if they said it, and who is and
isn't saying things. That takes a LOT of work, and is frought with
inaccuracies. My tarot cards tend to be more accurate, as a matter of fact.

I can name any number of examples where the 'popular' opinion and the real
opinion by the silent side were different, wildly different. I can also
probably name as many cases where they were the same. I've seen situations
where the raised voices were on the affirmative side, and cases where they
were screaming for blood. I won't bother naming any, since that doesn't do
anything except fill space. What it DOES say is that there isn't a pattern
to what people do or don't say -- you have to extrapolate each situation
individually based on your knowledge of the net. There are very few people
on the net that I would trust doing that, and they tend to misjudge often
enough that I wouldn't trust it implicitly. 
-- 
:From the offices of Pagans for Cthulhu:          Chuq Von Rospach
{cbosgd,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuqui   nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA

Who shall forgive the unrepentant?