Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site mnetor.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utcs!mnetor!sophie
From: sophie@mnetor.UUCP (Sophie Quigley)
Newsgroups: net.motss
Subject: Re: Communication and NET.MOTSS
Message-ID: <1863@mnetor.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 22-Aug-85 14:16:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: mnetor.1863
Posted: Thu Aug 22 14:16:09 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 22-Aug-85 15:13:42 EDT
References: <656@sfmag.UUCP>
Reply-To: sophie@mnetor.UUCP (Sophie Quigley)
Distribution: net
Organization: Computer X (CANADA) Ltd., Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Lines: 30

In article <656@sfmag.UUCP> rjl@sfmag.UUCP (R.J.Lewis) writes:
>If progress is going to be made in the area of Gay Rights, we "responsible 
>netters" are going to have to communicate with each other (on the net 
>and off).  The net is the best means of communication open to many of 
>us because
>			1) It can preserve anonymity
>			2) It has world-wide distribution
>			3) It's quicker and more reliable than U.S. mail :-)
>
>While it is one of the best means of communication it is also one of 
>hardest to use.  I can attest to the fact that it is not easy to open
>one's self up to a world of strangers.

Please do be careful though....  Anonymity can be preserved, but only
by posting through other people's accounts.  I think that there is a
great danger in using the net, that of distancing oneself from the
readers too much and opening oneself up to the world too much.  I
certainly regret having posted certain articles to the net.  Not that I
have felt any ill-effects as a result, but that I still wonder about
whether I might not meet one day apply for a job with someone I have
flamed to hell or have disclosed some intimate details to via the net.
The former is not too bad as I doubt I'd like to work with someone I
disliked enough to flame really badly, but the latter is, as it might
open me to sexual harassment or other unpleasant happenings.  So while
there might be some therapeutic advantages to opening oneself up to
strangers, there might also be some more down-to-earth repercussions of
such an action.  It's not an easy decision.
-- 
Sophie Quigley
{allegra|decvax|ihnp4|linus|watmath}!utzoo!mnetor!sophie