Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site pyuxc.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!pyuxww!pyuxc!chris From: chris@pyuxc.UUCP (R. Hollenbeck) Newsgroups: net.singles Subject: Re: net.personals Message-ID: <667@pyuxc.UUCP> Date: Tue, 27-Aug-85 09:54:16 EDT Article-I.D.: pyuxc.667 Posted: Tue Aug 27 09:54:16 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 28-Aug-85 08:59:48 EDT References: <39@csi> <2279@sdcrdcf.UUCP>, <1531@peora.UUCP> Organization: Bell Communications Research, Piscataway, NJ Lines: 37 >Why is there this great enthusiasm for net.personals? Because there are people who want to meet other people and want as many avenues as possible for doing so. >It seems to me to >be a bad thing. (Actually, when I first started reading the Network News, >I used to avoid net.singles, because I thought that was what it WAS.) Don't know why you say it would be a bad thing. However, if you feel it would be, you can treat it the way you used to treat net.singles, i.e., don't read it. >Why would advertising yourself be better than merely talking to other people? >Isn't writing in here a way to meet people? I hope that if net.personals >appears, people will not begin to assume "s/he didn't put an ad in net.- >personals, so s/he must not be interested," or something along those lines, >the way people currently reason in Real Life... The main reason for a personals group is that not everyone has lots of opportunities to meet people in "real life" (I will agree with you that this is not real life). And it's just possible that someone fantastic is reading this group, but you'll never know they're fantastic because you'll never meet them. Sure, you'll read their postings, but it's not the same. You could try to strike up an e-mail conversation, but how would you know if they're interested? Married or otherwise involved? Or, in some cases, what sex they are? A personals column allows those who are interested in meeting other people to go to a place where there are others with the same interest. This is not to say that one could not strike up other "conversations" with people who have not posted in net.personals, but simply that those who want to avoid the embarrassment of writing to strangers can find strangers who, by posting to net.personals, have indicated that they would like to be written to by other strangers.