100 Snoozenet
archive names, descriptions, Makefiles, and so on. Alt.sources has become
a clone of the moderated groups it sought to bypass. Meanwhile,
alt.aquaria and alt.clearing.aquaria have given more forums for aquar-
ium-owners to congregate.This Information Highway Needs Information .........................
Except for a few jabs at Unix, we’ve recited history without any real criti-
cisms of Unix. Why have we been so kind? Because, fundamentally,
Usenet is not about technology, but about sociology. Even if Unix gave
users better technology for conducting international discussions, the result
would be the same: A resounding confirmation of Sturgeon’s Law, which
states that 90% percent of any field is crap.A necessary but, unfortunately, not sufficient condition for a decent signal-
to-noise ratio in a newsgroup is a moderator who screens messages. With-
out this simple condition, the anonymity of the net reduces otherwise ratio-
nal beings (well, at least, computer literate beings) into six-year olds whose
apogee of discourse is “Am not, Are so, Am not, Are so....”The demographics of computer literacy and, more importantly, Usenet
access, are responsible for much of the lossage. Most of the posters are
male science and engineering undergraduates who rarely have the knowl-
edge or maturity to conduct a public conversation. (It turns out that com-
paratively few women post to the Usenet; those who do are instantly
bombarded with thousands of “friendly” notes from sex-starved net surfers
hoping to score a new friend.) They also have far too much time on their
hands.Newsgroups with large amounts of noise rarely keep those subscribers who
can constructively add to the value of the newsgroup. The result is a
polarization of newsgroups: those with low traffic and high content, and
those with high traffic and low content. The polarization is sometimes a
creeping force, bringing all discussion down to the lowest common
denominator. As the quality newsgroups get noticed, more people join—
first as readers, then as posters.Without a moderator or a clearly stated and narrow charter such as many of
the non-alt newsgroups have, the value of the messages inevitably drops.
After a few flame fests, the new group is as bad as the old. Usenet parodies
itself. The original members of the new group either go off to create yet
another group or they create a mailing list. Unless they take special care to