chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) (07/09/85)
Someone out there (I think it was petsd!root, and it was definitely in
Perkin Elmer land) sent out a newgroup for the group net.bizarre. Since
there has been no discussion on the group, I've tossed a rmgroup out
chasing after it, for what good that will do.
World, please quit mucking around with control messages if you don't know
what you are doing. They make life miserable for the entire network when
you screw up, and create maintenance hassles at best. If your active file
is out of date or something, there are many ways to deal with that without
having to involve the rest of the network.
chuq
--
:From the misfiring synapses of: Chuq Von Rospach
{cbosgd,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuqui nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA
Admirals, extoll'd for standing still,
Or doing nothing with a deal of skill. -- William Cowperwoods@hao.UUCP (Greg Woods) (07/10/85)
I have kept silent on all the stuff that's been going on, but I must
emphatically agree with Chuq on this one. This is clearly a malicious
attempt to corrupt the network and we can't tolerate it, all arguments
about censorship are inapplicable here. The analogy is the old cliche:
Freedom of speech does not include the right to shout "fire" in a
crowded theater when there is no fire. Posting of bogus control messages
is a *serious* breach of net etiquette, and if sufficient numbers of
people do this, the net will be destroyed. Whoever the bozo responsible
for this is, I hope you had a good laugh. I also hope your SA finds you
and kicks you off the net. We don't need malicious jerks. I'm willing to
tolerate people who oppose me, even flamers, as long as no one is deliberately
trying to screw up this network. Another cliche, if you will, from Patrick
Henry: I may disagree with what you say, but I will fight for your right
to say it. Addition: As long as you aren't out to destroy the medium that
I (and YOU) are using to communicate.
--Greg
--
{ucbvax!hplabs | allegra!nbires | decvax!noao | harpo!seismo | ihnp4!noao}
!hao!woods
CSNET: woods@NCAR ARPA: woods%ncar@CSNET-RELAYroot@bu-cs.UUCP (Barry Shein) (07/17/85)
As far as I can tell, someone created net.bizarre, unauthorized and it now has been officially 'removed'. Well, we haven't removed it yet and I've gotten some pretty funny stuff on it (maybe its my warped sense of humor but the article about the threat to charge with 'offensive littering' the person who left two human heads in a parking lot caught my funny bone.) If it would be designated as kind of a place to dump those ever-occuring bizarre news stories, true-life facts, I'd vote to keep it, truth is always stranger than fiction, this might be a bit of net serendipity. Any fan of those little fillers in the New Yorker should understand. -Barry Shein, Boston University I know net.jokes and all that, but who can wade thru that? I don't even subscribe anymore. Maybe it should be net.ripleys.
chrisa@azure.UUCP (Chris Andersen) (07/21/85)
In article <498@bu-cs.UUCP> root@bu-cs.UUCP (Barry Shein) writes: >As far as I can tell, someone created net.bizarre, unauthorized and >it now has been officially 'removed'. > >Well, we haven't removed it yet and I've gotten some pretty funny >stuff on it (maybe its my warped sense of humor but the article >about the threat to charge with 'offensive littering' the person >who left two human heads in a parking lot caught my funny bone.) We had a similar thing on a system similar to the net on our computer at school (RPI). Someone who went by the name Post-Mortem created a discussion called (get this) "Post-Mortem dump". In became a collecting place for all sorts of crazy stories, half-baked theories, and other totataly outrages (but very humorous) randomness. I to would love to see something like this. It could be a collecting place for things like "Stupid People's Court" and the Kelvin Thompson Movie reviews. Thus, those that complain about subtle humor don't have to worry about such things "polluting" otherwise "good" discussions. >I know net.jokes and all that, but who can wade thru that? I don't >even subscribe anymore. Maybe it should be net.ripleys. Most of the stuff posted to net.jokes are just that, jokes. While the stuff posted to something like net.bizzare are subtle, mind-twisting bits of randomness (sort of like stuff that would come from the mind of Douglas Adams). Just an opinion, Chris Andersen -- tektronix!azure!chrisa
lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein) (07/23/85)
One advantage of collecting that sort of stuff into net.bizarre would be that it would be easy for sites that weren't interested to simply not forward it, as is their choice. --Lauren--
bobn@bmcg.UUCP (Bob Nebert) (07/24/85)
> As far as I can tell, someone created net.bizarre, unauthorized and > it now has been officially 'removed'. > > Well, we haven't removed it yet and I've gotten some pretty funny > stuff on it (maybe its my warped sense of humor but the article > about the threat to charge with 'offensive littering' the person > who left two human heads in a parking lot caught my funny bone.) >> >> I agree. We need at least one corner of the world reserved for >> bizarre stuff to put a smile on the old face. The 'offensive >> littering' story was great and it would not fit anywhere else. >> >> As long as it is used for what it was created for and dosen't >> slide into a flame/coke/bicker group. >> >> bob nebert >> sdcsvax!bmcg!bobn
root@bu-cs.UUCP (Barry Shein) (09/03/85)
I vote that we limit net.bizarre to the publisher of the BIZARRE GAZZETTE (Bob Nebert, ..bmcg!bobn.) Everything he puts in there is in what I believe to be in the right spirit (strange news articles etc) and the format is wonderful. He should be consulted as to whether he would like people with kindred stories to mail them to him for inclusion, and how long he plans to keep going with his publishing venture. This would just be a bizarre form of a moderated newsgroup, how appropriate. -Barry Shein, Boston University
b2@magic.UUCP (Bryan Bingham) (09/03/85)
> I vote that we limit net.bizarre to the publisher of the BIZARRE GAZZETTE > (Bob Nebert, ..bmcg!bobn.) > -Barry Shein, Boston University I agree completely, and urge that net.bizarre be changed to mod.bizarre if Bob is willing to moderate. Even if he decides he doesn't want to accept postings from others and just post his BIZARRE GAZETTE that would be fine with me. b2 b2@mouton ihnp4!bellcore!b2
arnold@ucsfcgl.UUCP (Ken Arnold%CGL) (09/05/85)
> I vote that we limit net.bizarre to the publisher of the BIZARRE GAZZETTE > (Bob Nebert, ..bmcg!bobn.) > -Barry Shein, Boston University This is ridiculous. Why does someone think that one particular type of bizarrness is the only kind that should be in a newsgroup set up for the bizarre? THAT is pretty bizarre itself. I like the BG, too, but I have seen several things there that were great, and I, for one, object to this idea. Ken Arnold
lear@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU (eliot lear) (09/05/85)
What was the ORIGINAL purpose of net.bizarre?
eliot
--
[lear@topaz.rutgers.edu]
[{allegra,seismo}!topaz!lear]mikel@bmcg.UUCP (Mike Lesher) (09/05/85)
In article <617@bu-cs.UUCP> root@bu-cs.UUCP (Barry Shein) writes: >I vote that we limit net.bizarre to the publisher of the BIZARRE GAZZETTE >(Bob Nebert, ..bmcg!bobn.) > > -Barry Shein, Boston University I agree that net.bizarre consists of mostly net.trash. I have talked to Bob and agreed that if a mod.bizarre is created, I will help as junor publisher/typesetter/assistant. I vote that net.bizarre goes into /dev/null and a mod.bizarre is created. Mike Lesher sdcsvax!bmcg!mikel
qux@yale.ARPA (El Magnifico Kaufman) (09/06/85)
In order to keep some of the garbage out of net.news.group, I hereby
volunteer to collect votes for/against net.bizarre. I have my own
opinion, but will ruthlessly suppress it until I summarize the results.
Suggestions (such as asking Bob Nebert to moderate a mod.bizarre, or to run
a mailing list) will be accepted along with your vote. Hate mail will be
ruthlessly sent to the bitbucket. I will post a summary within a week, or
when the flood of votes dies, whichever is sooner.
You can reach me at:
Kaufman@Yale.Arpa
Kaufman@YaleCS.Bitnet
{apollo,decvax,hsi,ima,...}!yale!kaufman
Sacrificing my mbox for the net,
Quxqux@yale.ARPA (El Magnifico Kaufman) (09/08/85)
It has come to my attention that, for reasons too boring to go into on
the net, there has been some difficulty in mailing me net.bizarre votes.
The only two addresses that I can guarantee will work are:
{apollo,decvax,hsi,ima,...}!yale!kaufman
Kaufman@Yale-Comix.Arpa
In particular, yale-comix.UUCP does not exist, and Yale.Arpa is bouncing
my mail.
Sorry to bother the net with this. Keep those cards and letters coming!
Quxevan@petfe.UUCP (Evan Marcus) (09/10/85)
Comments have been made that net.bizarre should be restricted to
the publisher of the Bizarre Gazette and that should be it.
Once again, I disagree. While the creation of net.bizarre may have
been a mistake, it's here now, and the removal of it will probably
cause more grief than it's creation. People now have an outlet (and I
feel a reasonably good one) for creativity and silliness (there is no
net.silly), and as a result, postings of this sort have left the
net.flame area. Flame has returned to more of what it ought to be:
angry ravings, and unmoderated arguments. It has lost a lot of its
silliness, and probably a lot of its readers, AND traffic volume.
If bizarre is taken away, first of all, there will be a lot of traffic
(directed here?) asking what happened to it. It will be short-lived,
but inevitable. Also, and more importantly, the traffic will not go
away, but be redirected. A lot of bizarre traffic has been appearing
in net.misc already, and so if bizarre is removed, all of its traffic
will probably wind up there.
Also, when bizarre was started, I don't recall seeing a message to its
users explaining its purpose. (i.e. the description line) There was a
long, exceedingly silly discussion about what to put in the group's
description line, but it became so silly that I doubt any of the group's
users took it seriously. ("Descriptions of odd occurrences...") Since
the group was started by accident, and then restarted without the
standard discussions, it was never (as far as I know) given a true
purpose. I have read net.bizarre since its beginnings, and never seen
any sort of statement of purpose.
Unfortunately, the quality of net.bizarre has diminished a great deal
since its beginnings. That is truly a shame. When it started, I would
often catch myself laughing out loud at a large number of the postings.
That doesn't happen too much anymore. If net.bizarre were just my toy,
I would probably tire of it soon, and stop using it. (I may.) I have
not used the net long enough to know if this happens to other users
or not. I tend to doubt it.
I get the impression that the net.rulers are treating the net.bizarres
like children. Maybe you should try to get some opinions from some of
the other users before taking it away? Maybe we need the creation of
net.silly???????? (half-joke)
--Evan Marcus
--
{ucbvax|decvax}!vax135!petsd!petfe!evan
...!pedsgd!pedsga!evan
There was a major earthquake today in the tiny African country of Togo...wombat@ccvaxa.UUCP (09/12/85)
I agree absolutely. Let the BIZARRE GAZETTE move to mod.bizarre and kill net.bizarre! (Funny, though, that everyone seems to agree on what belongs in net.bizarre except the people who write in it.) "When you are about to die, a wombat is better than no company at all." Roger Zelazny, *Doorways in the Sand* Wombat ihnp4!uiucdcs!ccvaxa!wombat
bmg@mck-csc.UUCP (Bernard M. Gunther) (09/17/85)
> Net.bizarre is a major pollutant, and it does not appear to be meeting its > original purpose. > > I think it is time to get rid net.bizarre and give the few people who really > want it a mailing list. > -Dragon All that needs to be done to eliminate the "problem" is not to have it pass through your site. If enough major sites do this, it will very soon be gone, except in localized areas or via a totally different set of paths. If you don't want to have a certain group going through your machine, you can very easily, unilaterally tell yuor feeds not to send it to you and tell the sites you feed that you're not going to carry it any more. You always have this right. If enough sites assert their rights, the problem will go away very quickly. This will accomplish your objective without giving anyone else cause to be mad. They can have their group, you don't have to listen. Bernie Gunther
faunt@hplabs.UUCP (Doug Faunt) (09/19/85)
> cause more grief than it's creation. People now have an outlet (and I > feel a reasonably good one) for creativity and silliness (there is no > net.silly), and as a result, postings of this sort have left the > net.flame area. Flame has returned to more of what it ought to be: > angry ravings, and unmoderated arguments. It has lost a lot of its > silliness, and probably a lot of its readers, AND traffic volume. > > the other users before taking it away? Maybe we need the creation of > net.silly???????? (half-joke) > net.news.group seems to be doing just fine as a stand-in for net.silly. -- ....!hplabs!faunt faunt%hplabs@csnet-relay.ARPA HP is not responsible for anything I say here. In fact, what I say here may have been generated by a noisy telephone line.
tim@cithep.UucP (Tim Smith ) (09/20/85)
To those who want to kill net.bizarre: Why not try it in a way consistent with the origins of net.bizarre. That is, just start sending rmgroups until the net gives in and lets it remain rmgrouped? -- Tim Smith ihnp4!cithep!tim
trudel@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU (Jonathan D.) (09/23/85)
> Relay-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site topaz.RUTGERS.EDU > > > People now have an outlet (and I > > feel a reasonably good one) for creativity and silliness (there is no > > net.silly), As one of the few people who have used net.bizarre for a creative outlet, I feel that I do understand much of the criticism. I have always seen net.bizarre as a really good way for inventive thought to be expressed on the net. I have posted some weird material, as have many others. Unfortunately, most of the stuff I see inside net.bizarre should be on net.jokes (remember that?) Many of the discussions raging on net.bizarre have to do with such 'humorous' topics as pet names, city names, and street names. All that the posters in these catagories have done is ask for something funny, tack on the word 'bizarre' to the request, and viola! A net.bizarre posting is born. Soon after, net.bizarre is flooded with similar material, and much of it is NOT bizarre. I have seen 'Well, I thought it was bizarre' more times than I care to. I used to see a similar phrase on net.jokes 'Well, I thought it was funny'. Does anyone else realize that this is why there are so many critics of net.bizarre? I enjoy net.bizarre (at least the fun parts of it). I don't want it to be removed. Is there anything we can do to assure it's survival? If it requires the formation of mod.bizarre, I am in favor of it. -- Jonathan D. Trudel arpa: trudel@blue.rutgers.edu.arpa uucp:{seismo,allegra,ihnp4}!topaz!trudel Bill: He's hip, he's hot, and he's hairy. -Rolling Stone