Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!ames!pacbell!hoptoad!capmkt!brent From: brent@capmkt.COM (Brent Chapman) Newsgroups: news.admin Subject: Re: The Dynamics of Debate on USENET Message-ID: <365@capmkt.COM> Date: 29 Sep 89 17:55:58 GMT References: <35033@apple.Apple.COM> <46115@bbn.COM> <35037@apple.Apple.COM>Organization: Capital Market Technology, Inc.; Berkeley, CA Lines: 24 karl@triceratops.cis.ohio-state.edu (Karl Kleinpaste) writes: # Interestingly, USENET debates have a property that doesn't exist with # face-to-face debates: multiple participants separated by huge # temporal delays. # # I tend not to give much credence to this argument these days, because # of the low propagation times of the NNTP massfeed hubs, one of which # is my site. Just because a posted article reaches a machine within 20 minutes doesn't mean that it is read and responded to as soon as it comes in. I suspect that many (perhaps most?) people read news in one sitting around a certain time each day, rather than continually popping in and out of it throughout the day. Thus, regardless of how low the article propagation times are, there's still a 1-day delay factor for a lot of people. -Brent -- Brent Chapman Capital Market Technology, Inc. (soon-to-be-ex) Computer Operations Manager 1995 University Ave., Suite 390 brent@capmkt.com Berkeley, CA 94704 {apple,lll-tis,uunet}!capmkt!brent Phone: 415/540-6400