From: jfurr@polaris.async.vt.edu (Joel K. Furr)
Newsgroups: news.groups,alt.folklore.computers,alt.config,alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: RESULT: comp.society.folklore unmoderation fails 729:151
Date: 16 Dec 92 09:33:53 GMT
Organization: Escape from Blacksburg, VA

In article <1gltddINNhq7@news.UU.NET> msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader) writes:
>My proposal to unmoderate comp.society.folklore and make it a replacement
>for alt.folklore.computers has been given one of the most decisive defeats
>I have ever seen a newsgroup proposal suffer.

It really would've been a better idea to pay attention at the beginning, Mark.
Your CFV said that the most-often-suggested idea was to do nothing and leave
a.f.c. alone.  I can't claim with authority that I know why people voted no in
such numbers, but I can *guess* that it had something to do with the point of
view expressed by several of us that it was very selfish to propose a hostile
hijacking and moving of a group enjoyed by many thousands of people just so two
people, yourself and Jay Maynard, could read it without having to telnet to a
site that *did* receive it.

>If my original guess had been close and the proposal had failed by a
>narrow margin, I would have considered alternative plans for "promoting
>alt.folklore.computers out of the sewer".  The decisive vote makes it
>clear that any such proposal would fail, and I would like to thank the
>voters for delivering this message so clearly (and, for the most part,
>politely).  This is my last word on the topic of comp.society.folklore,
>until and unless someone *else* proposes doing something with it.
>In case there are any followups, I have directed them to news.groups.

I don't need a PhD. to know that the '(and, for the most part, politely)'
comment includes me in the part that wasn't polite.  There was a good reason
for me to have been as rude as I was.  It was a _very_ stupid idea and one not
based on any logic or common sense at all.  Debating it politely with silk
gloves on would have lent it credibility.  Since no one but Mark knew how the
vote totals were going, I wasn't about to do anything that might make people
think that the 'friendly takeover' (as Mark called it) was anything but
something that crawled up out of the sewers of Hell.

Basically, the idea of 'promoting' alt.folklore.computers was a really stupid
idea, and that's all there is to it.  It was a _selfish_ idea, based as it was
on forcibly renaming and moving a very popular group just so two people could
read it without telnetting elsewhere.  It was also a _badly reasoned_ idea; if
you follow the logic of the original CFD and CFV, to wit, that any group not in
comp. having anything at all to do with computers should be 'promoted', we'd
soon have 'promotion to comp.' CFV's for an awful lot of newsgroups in the rec.
and soc. and talk. and misc. hierarchies as well.

Finally, I'd like to point out that Brader's idea was essentially
self-defeating.  Had the CFV _passed_, he would have had to persuade his news
admin to _PICK UP THE ALT.FOLKLORE.COMPUTERS FEED_ and THEN alias it to
comp.society.folklore if he wanted to be sure to get a decent percentage of the
traffic.  Since Brader's news admin apparently wants nothing at all to do with
alt. in any way, shape, or form, the proposal Brader thought so logical could
not possibly have worked... unless he would have been content with only
receiving what little a.f.c. traffic actually did arrive at his site already
aliased by someone else to comp.society.folklore.

When you compare the incredible illogic of Brader's hijacking proposal with the
simple reality that five minutes filling out a registration form at any of
several free newsreading sites would have taken, you really wonder why he went
to all this bother.

My thanks to the 729-odd people who said NO and saved alt.folklore.computers.
Newsgroups: news.groups,news.admin.misc