Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site bbncca.ARPA Path: utzoo!linus!bbncca!sdyer From: sdyer@bbncca.ARPA (Steve Dyer) Newsgroups: net.motss Subject: Re: Steve Dyer's suggestion re: appalling flames Message-ID: <878@bbncca.ARPA> Date: Wed, 1-Aug-84 12:39:57 EDT Article-I.D.: bbncca.878 Posted: Wed Aug 1 12:39:57 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 2-Aug-84 00:08:59 EDT References: <2732@decwrl.UUCP> <2@clkvax.UUCP> Organization: Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, Ma. Lines: 60 >All I can figure is that you must not read net.abortion >or net.music or net.religion (and n.r.jewish) very much. >You wanna keep it private, start your own mailing list. >There's about as much baiting here as in any other >newsgroup where personal choice is a central concern. Before I make any comments on your article, let me allow you to re-read the first submission to net.motss in which its aim and groundrules are clearly stated: "Net.motss is a forum for the discussion of gay-related issues of interest to all members of USENET. It is designed to foster discussion on a wide variety of topics, such as health problems, parenting, relationships, clearances, job security and many others. Gay members of USENET will find this a supportive environment for the discussion of issues which have immediate impact on their everyday lives. Those who aren't gay have an opportunity to be informed by the discussion, and are encouraged to read the news items and contribute their own questions and opinions. "Net.motss is emphatically NOT a newsgroup for the discussion of whether homosexuality is good or bad, natural or unnatural. Not is it a place where conduct unsuitable for the net will be allowed or condoned. Rather, like every USENET news group, it is an opportunity for people all across the world to express their opinions, exchange ideas, and come to appreciate the diversity within the USENET membership." You may find the flames and counter-flames which you read in net.{abortion,religion[.jewish]} interesting, I find a majority of them a waste of time. Net.abortion was specifically created to isolate the net at large from a perennial discussion which generates acrimony but little mutual understanding. I *REFUSE* to let net.motss become another net.abortion, with little substantive being argued. I am not interested in reading apologies for or attacks against homosexual behavior--there is very, very little there which can be discusssed rationally and intelligently. Let me turn your question around: if you want to participate in a discussion of whether gay people really want to be of the other sex, or whether they should be allowed basic civil rights, or whether they really "contribute" to society as much as heterosexuals do, then by all means, start your own mailing list. Or better yet, move it to some more appropriate place: maybe net.{sci,politics,misc,flame}. Or maybe net.singles--it seems to be a convenient dumping ground for unfocused discussions lately. >But as for cleansing the newsgroup of all but the faithful, >good luck.... The "faithful", of course, aren't composed only of gay people, nor would they all hold the same opinion on topics discussed here. And, of course, no one can "cleanse" a newsgroup. If I wish to see the discussion in net.motss change its direction, all I have to work with are my words and my power to persuade. It's up to those who read them to decide. They may think I'm all wet, and if so, more power to them. But it is ABSOLUTELY APPROPRIATE for people participating in this group to speak up when they feel the discussions move away from its original purpose. -- /Steve Dyer {decvax,linus,ima}!bbncca!sdyer sdyer@bbncca.ARPA