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.