minow@decvax.UUCP (Martin Minow) (12/20/83)
It has been suggested that net.motss was created "as if by magic" after everybody got bored discussing whether it should be created, and what it should be named. From what I saw of the discussion, it seemed that the "net community" was searching publicly for a consensus and the newsgroup appeared after, and only after, a consesus that all could live with was reached. Thus, the people who opposed discussion of homosexuality on a semi-public forum (just you, me, and NSA) could accept a group whose function wasn't blatently apparent from its name. Also, the people who wanted open discussion of the issue could accept the existence of the group lightly disguised. What I found fascinating about the discussion -- and what I wished DeBenedictis had mentioned in his excellent paper -- was the way the discussion compressed the entire "homosexuality comes out of the closet" phenomenon of the last five or six years into a few weeks. Martin Minow decvax!minow
jsq@ut-sally.UUCP (John Quarterman) (12/27/83)
Regarding USENET discussions and decisions: ...it went very fast, several people often speaking at once, nobody speaking at great length, a good deal of sarcasm, a good deal left unsaid; the tone emotional, often fiercely personal; an end was reached, yet there was no conclusion. It was like an argument among brothers, or among thoughts in an undecided mind. from The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin -- John Quarterman, CS Dept., University of Texas, Austin, Texas {ihnp4,seismo,ctvax}!ut-sally!jsq, jsq@ut-sally.{ARPA,UUCP}