From: amartell@nyx.cs.du.edu (Alex Martelli)
Subject: exciting hobbies (was  Re: Robert Anton Wilson (Was: Satan)
Summary: an enjoyable flamefest subthread
Keywords: and still is...:)
Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci.
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 92 13:29:32 GMT

cheating@ccvm.sunysb.edu (queue cue) writes:
	...
>And here we go again.  Do you know what an alt.group is, son?  Do
>you know, for one thing, that you can easily create an alt.group,

Not without shell access, I can't, and I don't have it here where I
have altnet access.  And I refuse to hack into shell level and quite
possibly make a mess for the one who makes nyx itself possible, just
to "easily create" a group for which no widespread interest has been
shown.  See how much you over-assume, sweetiepie?

>point, using your proposed title as an example, do you know that
>any and every newsgroup and most especially those in the alt.hierarchy
>are subject to an automatic signal-to-noise ratio of <5 in the best
>of cases?  You're not reading this on alt.satanism, are you, chum?

Point of fact I currently am, although I was not a regular user before
this, and may well drop it soon.  But again you assume too much: there
are plenty of alt. groups with excellent SNR, from alt.sex.bondage to
alt.atheism.moderated.  AND a SNR of 5, i.e. 16% dross, would be EXCELLENT;
I don't get that much from the most prestigious refereed journals in ANY
field!  In short, you're just spewing your mouth off, of course.

>Maybe you could rmgroup rec.arts.books.wilson (you'd have to get

Sure, sure, rmgroup a non-existent group.  Don't you worry, the men in
white will be here VERY soon...

>rid of the raw anyway, as that's just inviting those who normally
>read rec.sex.films to think they've found something more to their

People who "NORMALLY read" a non-existent newsgroup must surely be
an interesting bunch, so I wouldn't mind meeting them...

>But, even more to the point, bit.listserv.fnord-l *%_IS_%* the newsgroup
>and the listserv for discussing these materials.  So you find it
>occasionally filled with items which don't fit the description?  Do

No, I found it *exclusively* filled with talk.bizzarre material every
time I checked.

>you know that if you actually have anything to say, you're welcome
>to do so and ought to find out if there's any interest out there in
>what you're discussing?  At the least, you'll get a kind note from

A gatewayed mailing list is of course not the same thing as a real
newsgroup, you know.  Sure, of course I can plunge there and post
whatever, but will it do any good?

>salsbury@acsu.buffalo.edu inviting you to move over to leri-l where
>REAL discussion takes place, the haven of those who don't have the

Aha, a SECRET list for initiates, just the thing really.

>nerve to stick it out on FNORD-L/bit.listserv.fnord-l.  Course, it's

"Nerve"?  What a NICE place for a constructive give-and-take.

>much easier to point and whine and complain about how there's too

I point only with a mouse, and that rarely.  And I only whine when my
Mistress plays with my chained-up body in particularly devious ways -
mere whippings don't make me *whine* (pass out, maybe).  
And I'm not complaining about anything, just pointing out a few
reasons why I'd prefer a Wilson newsgroup ("by any other name") to
a gatewayed noisy mailing list which seems to meet your approval.  I
aired a proposal, it fell flat, now I'm haunting the net in general with
occasional grep's for "Wilson" -- may be "much easier" (?than what?),
but that can be a reason to rant about it only in an overripe cabbage
mistakenly worn in lieu of a head.

>much damn noise ... what's the usenet motto that used to be tossed
>out to new members?  Something like "Be prepared for anarchy."  Or
>are all of you too damn intimidated by LIBALP and LIBWCA?

>Cretins.

Oh, I believe I am fully prepared for anarchy, after all it's many years
I've been haunting the nets.  Over-assuming idiots who think they know
every last relevant detail of everything, as you very well exemplified
in your posting, are a typical part of the price to pay.  It's my luck I
enjoy the peculiar adrenalin rush of a good flamefest, its flavour so
subtly different and yet hauntingly similar to rock-climbing or a
knifefight.  BTW, what are those two 6-letter wordoids?


>M (and, H, and I know you're listening, as you may have guessed, I've
>chosen the persona of the unpleasant belligerant who smells constantly
>of scotch and diesel fuel and seems to always be late for something
>else)

Nice to see you're enjoying this, too.  BTW, do you like rockclimbing (bare
handed best), knifefights or bondage, too?  The former allows less roleplaying
than flamefests or the latter two, but has REAL danger to life and limbs to
compensate -- and that's where I'm off to for the next 2 weeks, so, have
good adrenalin rushes in the meantime, and, see you in September, assuming
I've managed to avoid splattering myself on some rocky ridge.
--
Alex Martelli - preferred email alex@am.sublink.org