Path: utzoo!censor!isgtec!bmw From: bmw@isgtec.UUCP (Bruce Walker) Newsgroups: news.admin Subject: Re: The Dynamics of Debate on USENET Message-ID: <147@isgtec.UUCP> Date: 27 Sep 89 12:15:39 GMT References: <35033@apple.Apple.COM> <46115@bbn.COM> <35037@apple.Apple.COM> Reply-To: bmw@isgtec.UUCP (Bruce Walker) Organization: ISG Technologies Inc., Mississauga, Ontario Lines: 21 In article <35037@apple.Apple.COM> chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) writes: > >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. As with satellite-based communications, if I decide to post a message (my argument), I do not know if someone else (or many 'elses') is (are) simultaneously posting the same argument, thus creating a kind of message 'collision'. Or perhaps someone has just posted what should be the final conclusive fact that would end the debate; what I contribute may not be seen for a week. This kind of message 'run-on' would have the effect of re-starting the argument, probably uselessly. Perhaps we should begin researching "Store and Forward Wide Area Networks and their Effect on The Dynamics of Debate" or "Debating in the Presence of Lost, Duplicated and Delayed Arguments"? Or has this been done before? :-) --- Bruce Walker ...uunet!mnetor!lsuc!isgtec!bmw "I'm never too busy to be rudely interrupted" ..utzoo!lsuc!isgtec!bmw ISG Technologies Inc. 3030 Orlando Dr. Mississauga. Ont. Can. L4V 1S8