From: merritt@macro.bu.edu (Sean Merritt)
Newsgroups: sci.physics
Subject: Re: Reluctant call moder(and sci.physics.research-NOT!)
Date: 23 Dec 92 17:28:50 GMT
Followup-To: sci.physics
Organization: Boston University Physics Department
In-reply-to: matt@physics2.berkeley.edu's message of 21 Dec 92 16:23:08 GMT


 %In article <MATT.92Dec21112308@physics2.berkeley.edu> matt@physics2.berkeley.edu (Matt Austern) writes:

  > In article <MERRITT.92Dec21110641@macro.bu.edu> merritt@macro.bu.edu (Sean Merritt) writes:

   > We don't need censorship here. Everyone is quite capable of choosing 
   > for himself. This not a Journal of Physics. It is a great big
   > public-restroom-wall. People who feel that they cannot stand having
   > "Crackpots" should leave the group and start your own Facist/Moderated
   > group, which I will predict now will be a very boring place indeed.

%   That, in fact, is exactly what I am proposing: not that sci.physics be
%   eliminated, or that it be moderated, but rather that we create a new
%   moderated group, sci.physics.research.  sci.physics won't be affected
%   in any way.
%
%   I don't think that a moderated group will necessarily be "fascist,"
%   but those who do object to moderated groups on principle can just keep
%   reading sci.physics instead.

Perhaps not facist, narrow sighted is a better term. I still think
that it will be a very boring place. I have been reading
sci.math.research and the topics are too specific and follow-ups
scant.

%   It is my hope that we can find a middle ground between Phys. Rev.
%   Letters and a public restroom wall.  At any rate, I'm disturbed by the
%   fact that so very few physicists actually use sci.physics; I have to
%   conclude that the newsgroup just isn't a very good place to talk about
%   physics.

Correct. If your a graduate student you should be working on your thesis
not reading the USENET(libraries are still the prefered source of info) . 
I you are a researcher chances are your reading USENET for a break, 
or relaxation(as might a grad student)in which case the last thing you
want to do is discuss your reasearch.

Can people learn about Physics form this group? Yes.
The ways we learns physics are:

1) Reading books and doing problems.

2) Doing experiments.(including thought type)

3) Talking with other knowledgeable people.

When I was a grad student the department set aside a class room for
tutoring undergrads. When times were slow we go to the chalk board
and "play" with physics and I learned more from my fellow grad
students at that chalkboard than I did from any Prof. When
undergrads did come they too were interested in what we were discussing.
I see this group more like the chalk board in that classroom
than a "public restroom wall.". I also see no need for the
creation of another group as I feel USENET is already too
diluted by schisms. Most new groups are created because a
certain sect wants to silence others. On the rare happy occasion
a new gorup is created to accomadte a truly new subject of
interest. I believe that your "middle ground" exist in the
minds of many of the readers in this group already.

-sjm



--
Sean J. Merritt		         | "Every revolt is a cry of innocence    
Dept of Physics Boston University|  and an appeal to the essence of being."
merritt@macro.bu.edu             | Albert Camus, The Rebel