Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!crdgw1!lewis.crd.ge.com!welty
From: welty@lewis.crd.ge.com (richard welty)
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: Re: Call for discussion:  soc.history
Message-ID: <2841167783@lewis.crd.ge.com>
Date: 12 Jan 90 21:16:24 GMT
References: <2840561048@lewis.crd.ge.com> <11372@venera.isi.edu>
Sender: news@crdgw1.crd.ge.com
Reply-To: welty@lewis.crd.ge.com (richard welty)
Followup-To: news.groups
Organization: New York State Institute for Sebastian Cabot Studies
Lines: 34

In article <11372@venera.isi.edu>, Craig E. Ward writes: 
*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.

i've been suprised at the relative lack of this sort of stuff
in the soc.misc trial period; idealogical rhetoric has been
rare, and its outbursts have been short-lived (requesting
citations, sources, etc. has been a remarkably effective tactic.)

*  To prevent this, we might try sending a monthly posting analogous to
*the "Most Frequently Asked Questions" articles in some of the technical
*groups.

i have software to support a monthly posting; it's already in use
in rec.autos.*  moreover, i also have an archive server which allows
useful articles to be stored at a central site, and requested via
email; it too is successfully supporting rec.autos.*.  i see no
problems with adding soc.history (or whatever) to the list.

*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).

there are already book reviews showing up in the soc.misc trial
run; as for meta-discussion about history, those would for obvious
reasons be allowable as well.

richard
-- 
richard welty    518-387-6346, GE R&D, K1-5C39, Niskayuna, New York
..!crdgw1!lewis.crd.ge.com!welty            welty@lewis.crd.ge.com
    ``air holes!?  nobody said anything to me about air holes''