Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!apple!chuq From: chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) Newsgroups: news.admin Subject: Re: The Dynamics of Debate on USENET Message-ID: <35097@apple.Apple.COM> Date: 28 Sep 89 20:23:54 GMT References: <35037@apple.Apple.COM> <147@isgtec.UUCP> Organization: Life is just a Fantasy novel played for keeps Lines: 23 >>o If it's already been said, don't say it again. > Interestingly, USENET debates have a property that doesn't exist with >face-to-face debates: multiple participants separated by huge temporal delays. That's part of it, but there's another aspect that's been painfully clear in the rec.swl discussion. Yes, there's a time delay out there, but you can still avoid saying what's been already said when responding to the messages. For one instance, there are still "why not rec.ham-radio.swl?" messages floating into the discussion. Rather than repeat my stock answer for every one of these messages, I decided to save myself (and the net) some hassle and assume these folks caught the first three or four times I mentioned the reasons. You can't stop the delays from causing repeats, but you certainly can limit the tendency for those delays to bring back up discussions that have already been put to bed. -- Chuq Von Rospach <+> Editor,OtherRealms <+> Member SFWA/ASFA chuq@apple.com <+> CI$: 73317,635 <+> [This is myself speaking. I am not Appl Segmentation Fault. Core dumped.