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From: beres@cadnetix.COM (Tim Beres)
Newsgroups: news.groups,news.admin
Subject: Re: Results of survey on expansion of rec.humor.funny to other networks
Message-ID: <7102@cadnetix.COM>
Date: 16 Mar 89 17:37:59 GMT
References: <2914@looking.UUCP> <1581@etive.ed.ac.uk>
Sender: news@cadnetix.COM
Reply-To: beres@cadnetix.COM (Tim Beres)
Organization: Cadnetix Corp.,  Boulder, CO
Lines: 59

In article <1581@etive.ed.ac.uk> jha@lfcs.ed.ac.uk (Jamie Andrews) writes:
>In article <2914@looking.UUCP> funny-request@looking.UUCP writes:
>>After about 4 days of voting, here are the results:
>
>     420 people is a majority of the net?
>

Statistically valid, perhaps.  Getting the entire net to vote on something
would be impossible and a waste of bandwidth.

>     Questions like this one should not be decided by opinion
>polls of the entire net readership, but by reasoned and fair
>debate (ie. not on the net at all!) by people who know a lot
>about the consequences of it (ie. not me).  It's too important
>for a straw poll, newsgroup-skewed or otherwise.

Oh go read up on what usenet is:  An anarchy.  The net is administered
by "people who know a lot about the consequences", but it is not their
domain - we the net people, with netiquette and opinions for all control
the net, if indeed control is a justifiable word.  Yes we should listen
to the net gods, but where are they now?  It is just you and me and 
umpteen thousands of others reasonably debating these things.

I agree that Brad should have cross-posted the vote mechanism to news.groups
(maybe he did announce that the poll would be taking place in RHF in this
group, I don't know).  The bottom line, however, is that a substantial
majority of that groups readership support him.  RHF is heavily read,
not by Karl and Matt, but by many, many others.  Shit, they don't care
that he will make some dough by cross-posting THOSE JOKES that submitters
allow to be gatewayed.  With prodding (HEY, BRAD!  GET US SOME JOKES FROM
OTHER NETS), it might even improve RHF.

>     Maybe I'm just jealous, or depressed, that Brad's carefully
>calculated posting style (simplistic arguments, short sentences,
>1000-word vocabulary) can have such an effect.  I dunno.

>
>     Anyway, send in the flames, I'll probably ignore them since
>unfortunately I'm caring less and less about the net these days.

Bummer.  You do sound depressed.  For those that don't like what Brad
is doing, here is what I suggest.  Attempt to create an alt.humor.whatever
group, moderated.  Get it popular.  Run it the way YOU and your READERSHIP
wants.  When it gets popular, try to get it moved to rec.humor.freebies.
If you are in the right in this argument, your readership will increase
RHF will decline and we can make Brad walk the comedic gang plank.

For now, though, RHF likes what it gets, doesn't mind Brad the Capitalist
making money by improving (my opinion) the group and have said so.

			Tim (let no Brad rend asunder what the net police 
			     will blatantly plunder - just a rhyme, folks)



------>MY SOAPBOX (I speak for myself)
	"Any accord based on Ortega's promises is like trying to 
	      leash a dog with sausages" - Adolfo Calero
Tim Beres   beres@cadnetix.com  {uunet,boulder,nbires}!cadnetix!beres