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