Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!usc!venera.isi.edu!cew From: cew@venera.isi.edu (Craig E. Ward) Newsgroups: news.groups Subject: Re: Call for discussion: soc.history Summary: A nice idea but I worry about the signal/noise ratio. Keywords: history, discipline, anti-flame suggestion Message-ID: <11372@venera.isi.edu> Date: 12 Jan 90 20:28:38 GMT References: <2840561048@lewis.crd.ge.com> Reply-To: cew@venera.isi.edu.UUCP (Craig E. Ward) Organization: Information Sciences Institute, Univ. of So. California Lines: 23 I would enjoy a newsgroup for discussions of history and related topics. My BA is in history (UCI '79) and I miss the fun of it. My one worry would be that a few would try to turn the group into a flaming talk-style group, pouring forth a flood of politically slanted, demagogic garbage. To prevent this, we might try sending a monthly posting analogous to the "Most Frequently Asked Questions" articles in some of the technical groups. This article should emphasize the importance of siting sources (few on the net will be doing original work in the field) and clearly defining the deference between primary and secondary sources. This will not stop some people from flaming away, but it could reduce the number of responses because most of the regular readers would recognize flames for what they are and ignore them. In addition to discussions of the events of the past, we could have reviews of new history books posted, discussions of the relevance to our world of history as a discipline and lament the sorry state of history education in the primary grades (K-12). -- Craig E. Ward Slogan: "nemo me impune lacessit" USPS: USC Information Sciences Institute 4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 1100 Marina del Rey, CA 90292