From: mporter@nyx.cs.du.edu (Mitchell Porter)
Subject: CFD: alt.qixnews
Summary: Proposal for a newsgroup to discuss new, radical or fringe ideas.
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix @ U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 92 05:09:55 GMT

I would like to propose the creation of alt.qixnews.

PROPOSED CHARTER

alt.qixnews, in brief, would be for discussions that don't fit comfortably
within any particular category... interdisciplinary topics, radically new
topics, shunned topics, weird topics. A quick list of some of the things
that might be addressed:

* The ideas of "renegade" thinkers who are too individual to be easily
located on the intellectual map. Examples might be William Irwin Thompson,
Avital Ronell, Robert Anton Wilson, Terence McKenna, Hakim Bey, etc etc.

* Developing conceptual systems that will integrate or encompass
previously disparate areas. For example, various attempts are underway to
understand the relationship between information theory and physics, which
in turn points to a future conceptual crossover between cognitive science
and physics.

* Looking at oft-shunned topics: anarchy, psychedelics, radical
skepticism, Fortean phenomena, etc. There are already newsgroups and/or
mailing lists on many such areas, but there is no real forum where they
can be looked at *together*.

* "Free Religions" such as Discordianism and the Church of the SubGenius,
and strange systems of belief. Again, there are already newsgroups such as
alt.discordia and alt.slack, but there is no general forum for discussion
about what it all means.

alt.qixnews would be an experiment. An attempt to create an environment in
which *any* idea might be expressed and critically examined, to see who it
attracts and what, if anything, emerges from it. A place where all the
strange new possibilities that are being discussed in a hundred corners of
the Internet can encounter each other and where they can all be seen
side-by-side.

SOME QUESTIONS:

1. Why call it "alt.qixnews", of all things? I don't even understand what
the name means!

To cut a long story short, "Qix" is my handle on BBS's and my name in the
"Church of Virtuality/Reality", one of the Free Religions mentioned above.
I originally thought of starting a mailing list called QIX-L, so I could
get discussions going on all the above themes in the one place. As a
result of my own explorations of the net I ended up making a compilation
called "High Weirdness by Email", which lists some of the ways in which
you can find various sources of unusual information online or otherwise
link up with all sorts of interest groups. It seemed to me that it would
be useful to have a place on Usenet where people could post updates,
suggestions, errata, and so on. I could call such a group "alt.weird", but
in that case people might think it was just another talk.bizarre, whereas
I am hoping that this will be a forum for significant intellectual
dialogue. I think "Qixnews" sounds interesting but not zany. (And besides,
if Kibo and Carasso can have newsgroups, why can't I...?)

2. Why not stick with the idea of a mailing list?

Not everyone likes to carry on such discussions on mailing lists: the
problems include finding personal mail in the midst of list mail, and
finding the items you are interested in amongst the general flow of list
items. These problems become particularly great when the list in question
has a fairly high traffic. A Usenet newsgroup has a potentially larger
audience, in the form of casual readers who may have, only a passing
interest in most of the topics discussed. The ability to crosspost as
well, would allow alt.qixnews to call upon the knowledge of the readers of
more specialist newsgroups at times when that information was needed,
while still retaining its individual status as a forum for
transdisciplinary and unusual discussion and debate.

3. Why add one more group to the already-crowded alt hierarchy? Why not,
for instance, try to create 'talk.qixnews' instead?

The highly experimental nature of this I think is appropriate for alt. If
it becomes a wild success, it can then have a go at moving up to the
'talk' hierarchy and wider distribution; if not, it can sink without a
trace here.

Newsgroups: alt.config