Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!unmvax!deimos.cis.ksu.edu!rutgers!njin!princeton!phoenix!vnend
From: vnend@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (David James)
Newsgroups: news.misc
Subject: Re: Just how big are some of these sites?
Message-ID: <8270@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 10 May 89 16:29:45 GMT
References: <3209@looking.UUCP> <8222@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <3216@looking.UUCP>
Reply-To: vnend@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (D. W. James)
Organization: Princeton University, NJ
Lines: 43

In article <3216@looking.UUCP> brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) writes:
)It does not surprise me a lot.  In spite of the 'world community' aspect
)that computer nets drive towards, people are still most interested in
)things local.   The local groups are popular because, in most of them,
)you can still carry on a real discussion.  They are smaller (per group)
)but there are more of them.
 
)I also suspect that local groups have a few other factors in their favour.
)If you actually live in the same city as somebody, or work at the same
)site, or attend the same school, you are far less likely the flame them.
)The emotional distancing of netnews doesn't apply as much.  I wish there
)were some way we could get the emotional distancing out of worldwide
)netnews.
)Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd.  --  Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473

	I've observed the phenomena, but not the reasons that Brad gives.
Local groups seem to read for their *news* value, and their higher subscription
rate follows since local news impacts us more than national or international.
Discussions, in general, are few, short and to the point, with long gaps 
between them.  Most people subscribe to them because these are the groups
that systems people are most likely to have installed as default groups
to go into .newsrc's when they are created (the case here at phoenix), and 
the volume is low enough versus the value of the information that they
aren't worth unsubscribing to... much like news.announce.important.

	Also, the most violent verbal abuse I've seen was in a local group.
Rather than decreasing emotional distancing, it adds in personal factors
while keeping the feeling of distance.  People seem to be willing to call
so-and-so across town a yaahoo even more willingly than they are to call
someone across the country, simply because they feel safe doing so from 
across town, and they *want* to.  An unpublished student paper back at
UK supported this.  (Paper by Marty Hale, then a senior in Telecommunications.)

	I agree, it would be nice if we could increase the emotional empathy
of the net, but I think we need to do it for the entire race to see any 
imporvement on the net.


-- 
Later Y'all,  Vnend                       Ignorance is the mother of adventure.   
SCA event list? Mail?  Send to:vnend@phoenix.princeton.edu or vnend@pucc.bitnet   
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