From: peter@cs.umbc.edu (Pete Johansson)
Newsgroups: alt.rave
Subject: Re: rave?
Date: 4 Jan 1993 00:30:59 -0500
Organization: University of Maryland, Baltimore County Campus
NNTP-Posting-Host: retriever.cs.umbc.edu

greg.ipp@rose.com (greg ipp) writes:

> the whole idea of a rave (and the basis of the subculture it is
> spawning) is to get together with people you don't know, and meet them. 

lazlo@triton.unm.edu (Lazlo Nibble) responds:

>And that, by itself, isn't attractive to me.  I'm not a gregarious person
>-- crowds of strangers don't make me feel welcome, they make me feel
>crowded.  [...] 

I'm not sure that is a valid argument.  Or at the very least, I feel
you are contradicting yourself.  IMHO, I cannot think of a larger
crowd of strangers than the usenet.  And I don't see how a person who
takes the time to post a well-written message to hundreds if not
thousands of readers can be described as "not gregarious."

greg.ipp@rose.com (greg ipp) writes:

> ...as you stated in your message, you _would_ go to a rave if you knew
> people from the net were going to be there (ie. DJing). 

lazlo@triton.unm.edu (Lazlo Nibble) writes:

>Yeah, because after several years of facelessly throwing messages back and
>forth, it'd be great to finally meet some of those folks in person.

Really now, what's the difference?  The net is a rather daunting place
when you first enter it.  Hundreds of thousands of people all arround
the world typing something on the order of 10 million characters per day.
Kind of gives new meaning to the definition of crowded.  And all
strangers, known only the prose they type.  But the point is, you hang
out for a while, read, absorb, learn who's who, and then throw
yourself headstrong into the middle of things.  Is a net.person
really that faceless?  I would like to think not.

Personally, I see a lot of similariries between raves and usenet.
They are merely situations that allow people to interact.  The medium
is irrelivant.  The music is irrelivant.  (this is why Dead shows have
been compared to raves.)  The culture exists as a result of the
people, not vice-versa.  And the best part is that the people who do
participate are generally intelligent and open-minded.  The safety and
anonyminity allow you to say and discuss things that most people might
not feel confortable with in more "common" situations.

I will admit that there are problems with raves, especially the drug
use at illegal raves.  In a perfect world the rave would be a
substitute for drug use, and for many people (myself included here)
this is just the case.  I see many people so into their drugs that
they are incapable of conversation or interaction, a fact which I find
disappointing.  But face it folks, it's not a perfect world.

I don't want to end on a down note, but I will end with a bit of info
only Lazlo may appreciate - I remember the days, long ago, of a
certain, so-called AE-line, run on an Apple ][ with four floppy
drives, known as the Terrapin Station, where possibly less than legal
file transfers occurred, often through less than legal telephone
connections.  And stories by the great fiction writer Tristan
Alexander Farnon were told.  Ahhh, weren't those the days?

Peter Johansson (peter@cs.umbc.edu)
Always looking for rave info in the Baltimore/DC area.  Email please!