From: sfjr@wam.umd.edu (Sherri)
Newsgroups: alt.config,alt.sexual.abuse.recovery,news.admin
Subject: Re: CFD: alt.sexual.abuse.recovery.* new newsgroups
Date: 15 Dec 92 15:53:41 GMT
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park


First, an apology to my asar friends in healing who are having such a
hard time with all of this discussion.  Please hit 'n' now if you don't
need any more of it.  As much as I somestimes want everyone to just shut
up about it, I think these discussions need to happen, and they need
to happen here.

In article <BsueVB9w165w@mantis.co.uk> mathew <mathew@mantis.co.uk> writes:
>erc@unislc.uucp (Ed Carp) writes:
>> This is a formal call for discussion for the following newsgroups:
>> 
>> 	alt.sexual.abuse.recovery.admin
>> 	alt.sexual.abuse.recovery.d
>> 	alt.sexual.abuse.recovery.flame

And I see that Bill is creating a new group as well, a moderated group.
Don't you both see that you are the posters who more people are trying
to avoid or are most disturbed from than anyone on the current newsgroup?
I'm not saying that to attack either one of you (though I'm fully prepared
for both ofyou to get very angry with me).  I'm just saying that either
of you starting a newsgroup will not solve the problems you are hoping
to alleviate.  Lots of people on a.s.a.r. care deeply about both of you,
and I include myself in that group, but I also think that if either of
you start a newsgroup, that will put you in a position of authority for
the readers of that group--and I'm talking about perceptions of authority,
not actual power--and neither of you are the sort of authority figure that
it will be healthy for survivors of sexual abuse to deal with.

In Bill Wells' case, I think the problems are sure to be great.  I imagine
that one reason you want to start your own group is that you don't want
people linking your anon-name to your real name anymore.  It's obvious
to me at least that many people on asar feel the responsibility to warn
people about you, and you can cancel as many messages as you like, but I
don't think it's going to stop.  As I see it, you have been selectively
honest with us many times, particularly when you were trying to get 
emotional support from readers of the group during your efforts to
'protect' or 'rescue' an underage group member, when unbeknownst to most
of your supporters, you were also trying to begin a sexual relationship
with her.  I just don't think that asar will be able to give you the
help you need, and until you get it from somewhere, I'd be really
uncomfortable with you moderating a newsgroup for suvivors of sexual
abuse.  I still don't believe you've used the APS to contact people or
read their messages.  But when there's someone in a position of authority,
there is more involved than whether or not they actually abuse their power. 
>
>I suggest that you put them under alt.recovery.sexual-abuse.  Dots are not
>word separators, and the original newsgroup was badly named and should not
>have survived.
>
>
>mathew
>
Well, This is one suggestion I agree with.  We debated it a lot quite some
time ago.  The present name gets us screened from certain sites along with
the other groups in the alt.sex* hierarchy, and our group generally has
a lot more to do with recovery than it does to do with sex. .

Sherri
Newsgroups: alt.config