phoenix@ucbtopaz.CC.Berkeley.ARPA (John H. Johnson) (07/23/85)
I said in the last article that I would address the final of the three criteria for new groups - the question of a ^Need^. I recently received this very question from a well respected net guru, and I will leave you with my reply to him as an outline of the value of a net.bizarre. * * * * * * * * * So what need does net.bizarre fill? What /Need/ does net.games.trivia serve? None. It serves a purpose. People need to let off steam a bit, to unwind. Many use net.flame for this purpose, but that often leads into un-productive, and sometimes sheerly destructive postings, given the format. As several people have expressed so far, bizarre or 'weird' behavior or expression is another way of letting that shield down - a more productive way. It is also often more humourous than what is found in net.jokes, or jokes in general, because it is often more ingenius. Allowing bizarreness lets people feel a bit freer to unleash thier imagination. The bizarre can thus become enlightening, turning one's viewpoint around without discussion, without the need for justification and concern about image on the expressors part. Spontaneous, unrefined genius can result. So can garbage, but that comes with the territory. There /is/ an advantage to free-form expression. In Modern Art it has brought us quite a bit of garbage, but also a lot of insight. For the most part, the ^Need^ cannot be explained. It is something many people just feel an immediate, unexplainable affinity for. Why? I can't really speak for them, and I certainly am not the most eloquent of spokespersons. I have recently asked the 55+ people who have sent me mail so far to answer this question, however, and will will be happy to provide a condensed version of thier replies. There does seem to be quite a few people who feel net.bizarre fills a gap; we should soon find out some of thier reasons. [Added note: Now 65+ people...] * * * * * * * * * I have since received responses to this question from several of the net.bizarre supporters out there, and am still happy to provide a summary of these responses if called upon to do so. I will not do so here, since some individuals may wish to share thier insights directly in the ensuing discussion in this newsgroup. However, I will quote the following to give you a feeling for the nature of responses I am getting: >>>>>>>>>> net.bizarre: will provide an arena for ideas which are unrelated except for their bizarre nature. Groups which are broken across subject-matter boundaries are fine for discussing a particular *topic*, but some things are interesting just because they are bizarre, and not because they relate to anything in particular. For instance, where would you post an article about an incredible deja vu experience you had, without pissing off readers of net.misc, net.women (if it happened to relate to women), net.cosmos, or whatever. There is a lot bizarre in this world, and we need to talk about it, lest we think, solipsistically, that we are collectively or individually weird. Glenn Reid ..decvax!decwrl!adobe!greid >>>>>>>>>> There have been other reasons expressed, and if there is great resistance to this group, I am sure that others will bring them out. In the meantime, we are generating another ^long^ article, so I will once more bid adieu. Thank you again for your time, and an open mind..... 0 0 (Crises?.... What Crises?) ^ \_/ John Phoenix@ucbtopaz ucbvax!ucbtopaz!phoenix