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From: marco@andromeda.RUTGERS.EDU (the wharf rat)
Newsgroups: net.news.group,net.news.adm
Subject: Re: In praise of net.biz--I mean net.{rumor,suicide}
Message-ID: <345@andromeda.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Wed, 4-Jun-86 16:52:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: andromed.345
Posted: Wed Jun  4 16:52:12 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 5-Jun-86 09:56:15 EDT
References: <2341@seismo.CSS.GOV> <1001@k.cs.cmu.edu> <14076@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <14133@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Distribution: na
Organization: Rutgers University, Newark, NJ
Lines: 39
Xref: princeton net.news.group:3737 net.news.adm:619
Summary: I'm being a hypocrite, but...

In article <14133@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>, weemba@brahms.BERKELEY.EDU (Matthew P. Wiener) writes:
> I'm directing followups to net.news.group only.  I apologize to
> the readers of net.{suicide,rumor} for not having any worthwhile
> {train schedules,Shelli rumors} to post, but them's the breaks.
> 
> >But this morning I found 4 or 5 articles, all intended to be humourous
> >(at a 6-year-old level), having nothing whatsoever to do with the subject
> >of the newsgroup. Activities like this will kill the net faster than
> >problems of volume.
> 
> But just what do you mean by worthwhile postings?  Why should
> we judge the quality of net.suicide by *your* sense of humor?
> I get more fun and enjoyment out of net.suicide (and net.rumor)
> than I do from any other newsgroups, as do many other people.
> Part of the reason is the very idea of newsgroups whose actual
> activity runs skew to its stated purpose puts me in a subversive
> humor mood, the likes of which I can't get anywhere else.  I
> am against the reformation, for example, of net.bizarre, since
> I find net.{rumor,suicide} are much more enjoyable than the
> bizarre mailing list.  Just having a stated purpose puts an
> abstract constraint on all the bizarreness, twisting it into
> something even more bizarre and humorous than it would have
> been otherwise.

          On the assumption that .news.group will have missed the
original, I have included most of it.

           Would you feel the same way if people started posting
multi-hundred-line flames and questionable jokes in net.math ?
What would _your_ reaction be if the signal-to-noise in your
favorite groups suddenly began to approach zero because some
bizzaroid decided that it would be cute to hold cross-country
flaming contests ?  I don't realy care about .suicide; I've always
felt it was kind of a waste, but I OBJECT to this sort of thing
in groups that have always held to their charter.  MUST you
turn everything into net.bizzare ?  This sort of behavior makes
it difficult to justify carrying any news.  

                                             W.rat