From: rdonahue@spdcc.com (Bob Donahue)
Newsgroups: soc.motss
Subject: Re: The Silent Majority (was: other stuff)
Date: 26 Aug 92 00:49:48 GMT
Article-I.D.: spdcc.1992Aug26.004948.11893
Organization: insert anything here

rickc@agora.rain.com (Rick Coates) writes:
>bobsarv@microsoft.com (Bob Sarver of the twisted knickers) writes:

>>I have gotten several pieces of email from various folks who are "silent
>>lurkers" on this newsgroup; that is, they read but never post (or so they
>>tell me).  

Why do I doubt this?

>>The reason they never post is that it would be suicide; this
>>group appears to enjoy the sport of hunting down and tearing apart any
>>posting that it doesn't like.  Sort of like a pack of jackals . . .

Occasionally, someone makes their first post and starts off on the wrong
foot.  Most people who have read here for a while usually know the climate
very well and jump in without a thought.

Most of the people I've talked to (and I do hear from quite a few
muffins) say they don't post because someone usualy says what they were 
going to anyway and they don't want to make the load heavier.

I would say that the overwhelming majority of postings that say "and
this is my first post" are met with public and private congratulations.
I used to be quite fastidious about contributing to this practice,
I shall be more so in the future.

>This seems to come up from time to time.  

>Are posters to be swayed by what people who don't post think?  Why
>don't those who don't post just *post*.  Or maybe create their own
>newsgroup; there're enough of them made.

	Well, for the most part, like I said above its more of the
silent consensus of heads nodding along with something someone else
already posted.


>(No doubt they are *REAL*BIG* lurkers).

	:-)

>>They have given up posting (or wisely avoided doing it) because it's 
>>obvious to them that the chief posters on soc.motss regard this newsgroup 
>>as their private property, and god help anyone who posts something
>>contrary to the Accepted Truth (TM).

	This of course is B.S.'s real reason for this posting.  He's
run out of inane reasons to support his claims so now it's the "and
youall are a bunch of e-bullies"...

	B.S., the cabal is a joke.  IT doesn't exist.  If there were
a clique or some overriding "Accepted Truth", don't you think that
we e-bullies would have nuked you out of sight by now?  I mean
we have so many things we could talk about instead, like which
nail polish colours are going to be "in" this Fall!  (Anyone want
to lay odds that he'll take this statement seriously?)

>There could be some truth to this idea ("chief posters"), but, ya
>know, even if they do *regard* it as their personal property, it
>*isn't* their personal property, and someone else can regard it as
>their own personal property.  Happens on Usenet all the time.

	Xactly.  Soc.motss isn't moderated.  Even if we the 500+
or so of us that post over the course of a season were 101% totally out of
touch with the overall and meticulously diverse GBLO*-community,
we couldn't enforce a single agenda.

>I don't post much, but it's not because I'm afraid of the Cabal, I just
>don't have time.  The influence the 'chief posters' (I kinda like that
>phrase - "Say, chief, what do you think?")  has on my posting is to
>provide a standard of excellence.

	Actually the term "cheesecake" was coined in 1989... never caught
on as well as muffin.  The "Cabal" is what its usually called...
I can't like the term "chief poster" because it *does* imply a ranking
of "worth".  And I for one don't want to be held any higher (or lower :-)
than my compatriots whether I hear from them once a decade or once
an hour...  Some of the BEST and most insightful postings have come from
people who rarely post.

>With some notable exceptions, soc.motss has been unusually worthwhile
>this summer, even though marked by tragic loss.

	I more or less agree - after the phobe deluge of this Spring,
this Summer has been a welcome sight.  Here's hoping the undergrad-finding-
the-net-for-the-first-time rush in the next few weeks doesn't turn up
and Sheldon sycophants....

BBC