woods@hao.UUCP (Greg Woods) (06/06/85)
Rich, I really do not think that the main purpose for forming subgroups is
to prevent people with opposing points of view from participating, especially
since that can't be done anyway. That's why we have *mailing lists*.
The main reason for forming subgroups such as net.music.gdead and
net.religion.jewish (two of your favorite targets) is to isolate material that
would probably not be of interest to anyone else (like the color of Jerry's
T-shirts in net.music.gdead). This makes it easier and less time-consuming
for those *not* in the subgroup's intended audience to skip over some of
the overwhelming volume of net articles that they would not be interested in
anyway. There is nothing to *stop* non-Deadheads from taking the time to read
net.music.gdead, should they wish to do so, or from posting there (ditto for
non-Jews in net.religion.jewish).
We do agree on one point, though: we shouldn't be forming newsgroups to
prevent alternative viewpoints from being posted, because the failed experiment
with net.women.only shows that it doesn't work. Mailing lists (such as the
feminist list which has replaced net.women.only) are *very* successful at
presenting a guaranteed non-hostile environment for discussion. Perhaps the
Jews who are tired of non-Jews in net.religion.jewish should form a mailing
list, which the feminists and the Christians have successfully done. Everyone
must realize that you CANNOT stop alternate points of view from getting posted
in a net newsgroup, whether or not you think it would be a good idea to do so.
--Greg
--
{ucbvax!hplabs | allegra!nbires | decvax!noao | harpo!seismo | ihnp4!noao}
!hao!woods
CSNET: woods@NCAR ARPA: woods%ncar@CSNET-RELAY
"...I may not be right but I've never been wrong
It seldom turns out the way it does in the song..."