From: Dale McMillen <dmcmillen@igc.apc.org>
Newsgroups: alt.politics.greens
Date: 10 Jan 93 01:06 PST
Subject: Re: The Purpose of alt.politics.greens
Nf-ID: #R:1993Jan9.030809.16538@netcom.com:-57108770:cdp:1678600082:000:4406
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!dmcmillen    Jan 10 01:06:00 1993


I think the purpose of this newsgroup should be primarily to
introduce newcomers to The Greens, to answer some of their
questions (without engaging in lengthy debate), and to post
announcements for Green Party activities.  I think this newsgroup
could also be used to lightly discuss internal Green organizing
issues.

However, I do not think that this would be a very good forum for
detailed discussions about Green organizing.  As we have already
seen, there are many folks tuning into this conference to debate
with Greens, and there are many more (as seen from my personal
email and the PLEASE SIGN IN topic) who are using the conference to
find out about general information about The Greens to see if,
perhaps, they would like to join or get more involved.  The main
reason that I have been writing so much about general Green theory
and positions is because of these many newcomers.  I would be afraid
that too much detailed discussion would generate hostile remarks from
those who didn't agree with us (they are not likely to go away), and
confuse the newcomers.

There are already a number of conferences on econet which deal with
internal Green organizing.  The green.general conference is probably
the most active conference in the world for discussing and posting
issues related to the International Green Movement, although most of
the discussion relates to Greens in the U.S.  It is a public conference,
so anyone can participate, but it is generally visited just by Greens
so we are all "singing off the same sheet of music", so to speak.
There are also a number of specific conferences for Greens on econet.
For information on these other conferences, especially conferences
for the California Green Party, contact gmarcus@igc.apc.org.

If you would like more information about joining econet contact
econet@igc.apc.org.  Just a word about econet.  I feel that it
provides an invaluable service.  There are conferences, news and
events posted about any progressive, environmental, social, or
peace related topics imaginable.  It also provides access to
about any other network, including USENET, INTERNET, and BITNET,
not to mention the international networks.  And, for Green organizing
it has been of great use because of the number of Greens who have
accounts on the net.  In fact, nearly the entire Green Program
was developed by Greens across the country using econet in a 
series of "spaka" conferences.  ("SPAKA" was the acronym for
the program development process.)

However, and this is a big however, econet costs money.  It costs a
minimum of $10 per month which includes an hour of off-prime-time
access.  If you reach econet through SprintNet (telenet) lines, the
rate is $5 per hour for off-prime-time and $10 per hour for prime-
time.  SprintNet is available as a local call to most areas of the
country.  The rates vary somewhat if you call directly.  You can
call directly and pay the long distance yourself (the cheapest
rate), or call their "800" number, which is the most expensive
rate.  It generally costs me about $30 per month.  I do all of
my writing off-line, but I am a pretty active subscriber.  With
a little discipline (and it's tough with so many interesting
topics), you should be able to keep your costs down to about
$10 to $15 per month if you only use econet for Green Organizing.

There are also two bitnet: lists bitl.greenorg and bitl.green.
The bitl.greenorg list is for Green Organizing and the bitl.green
list is for general Green discussion.  The bitl.greenorg list is
mainly for posting announcements and hasn't been very active lately.
The bitl.green list has been totally quiet for months now.  The
bitl.greenorg list could be used for more Green Organizing than
it is now, and it has the benefit of being available to econet
users (as is alt.politics.greens) and probably a very wide variety
of other folks.  I believe it can be accessed through the university
INTERNET system at no charge to folks with university access.  The
drawback is that it is moderated which means there is a little
lag in posting to list subscribers and that it only seems to get
general annoucements if people are willing to cross post them
from other places such a green.general.  It does not seem to be
a good place to carry on extensive discussions.  If you would
like to subscribe to bitl.greenorg or bitl.green contact
env-link+discussion@andrew.cmu.edu.

Dale