weemba@brahms (Matthew P Wiener) (10/23/86)
Summary: Expires: Sender: Distribution: Keywords: I'll explain the extra cross-posting in a moment. If you MUST followup, please respect the fact that I've sent it to net.news.group ONLY, which isn't even one of the original groups. "This group" refers to misc.headlines, not the group you are reading. Apparently not all of you are receiving it yet. Contact your upfeeds! A lot of people have been asking what this group is for. As the person who made the proposal that led to its formation, and collected the votes, I think my opinion ought to count for something. Of course, post what- ever you like, but I believe my guidelines will lead to a useful group. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This group is meant to act as a lightning rod for current events dis- cussions that just won't stop, and are hard to pigeon hole in precise groups. This is similar to talk.abortion, which is not meant to be a high quality group, but merely a place to send all those endless abortion arguments, OUT of other newsgroups. Hopefully quality will be higher. Indeed, the reason this group is MISC.headlines and not TALK.headlines is because it's purpose is to funnel discussions out of other newsgroups, which it won't be able to do if it's a talkgroup. Two current appropriate topics for this group are: The ongoing pornography debate. It cuts across several issues, legal, political, moral, personal, etc. and it at first got cross-posted like crazy. That's the number one clue that it belongs in misc.headlines. The articles' very existence in favorite newsgroups is annoying some people immensely. The ongoing war on drugs debate. This too cuts across several issues, and is currently running simultaneously in sci.med and net.followup, soon to become misc.misc. And some bozo, while correctly requesting that it be moved out of sci.med--think about it, the issues are far too big for that group--then asked that the discussion be moved to THREE other groups, including, (thunk-on-the-head) talk.philosophy.misc. [Nothing personal "bozo", I thought it was a great article until that.] And remember the sodomy debate? It hit at least five or six groups, including net.rec.nude because ONE bozo cross-posted to net.rec.nude out of complete ignorance, and then followups stayed there, again out of complete ignorance. Some inappropriate topics, and where they belong: SDI, better known as Star Wars talk.politics.misc & mod.politics.arms-d It may still be news, and indeed it just might turn out to be the most important thing in your life, but it's old old news, and most of us aren't interested. Period. "Sunny's a loon/no, no you're closed-minded" e-mail/mod.psi, or as a poor second choice, sci.misc This all started when someone posted the months old news about Randi winning a MacArthur prize. There was a perfect group for that: sci.misc. The Shuttle disaster It was news, and it was of very wide interest, but one rather low-volume newsgroup already existed for it. (People did manage to post to two groups, but that's another story.) The latest news about the next Star Trek movie It belongs in net.startrek and/or net.movies. I only mention this--you all know better--because somewhere, when you least expect it, an idiot is going to get access to the net. Call me cynical, call me jaded, but don't call me late to dinner! Random headlines from _Weekly World News_ talk.bizarre, where else? (OK, this week's story about the little boy with two brains inside his skull--one female--might belong in sci.med, and the Dear Dotti letter from the 15-year old who's going to stay a virgin until she marries her boyfriend, which boyfriend wants her to prove her love by letting him take videos to show his friends just what she HAS been letting him do, MIGHT belong in soc.singles, but *I* draw the line at the story about the 300-pound soprano who fell on a cellist during an opera performance, nearly killing him, which does NOT, I repeat, does NOT ever ever belong in net.music.classical! I don't know, I don't read that group, but I think you get the idea.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In a certain sense, this group might be viewed as a subgroup of politics, restricted to those topics of more burning net-wide interest. The backbone is going to watch it, and if it degenerates into any old politics, it will be removed. Hopefully you've got the idea by now. Don't pick any old headline for discussion--you'll know it's a biggie when it comes, and if you can't figure out which of three or more groups should be the place for the discussion, consider redirecting followups here. If you haven't figured out yet why I cross-posted, it's to funnel two existing discussions over here, and furthermore, just to help spread the word. The next time you are annoyed by one of these endless dis- cussions, tell them to post to this group. Yikes, this is my fifth article in as many days. People might think I've unretired. Bye! ucbvax!brahms!weemba Matthew P Wiener/UCB Math Dept/Berkeley CA 94720 "Mother is far too clever to understand anything she does not like."