Acbosgd.647 net.general utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ihnss!cbosg!cbosgd!mark Sat Dec 19 11:51:52 1981 use of net.general I've sat here this morning and watched an incredible amount of junk go by on net.general. While you can always say "no" to "More [ynq]" if the title is there, this is really overdoing it. net.general is for stuff that everybody is supposed to at least consider reading. It's useful for INITIAL QUERIES and ANNOUNCEMENTS. It is NOT there for discussions. If you see something in net.general you want to comment on, you should almost always just REPLY to the author, not follow up to the world. If a continuing discussion is needed, start a new newsgroup. Now for some specific comments. I asked for the taste/censorship discussion to take place in net.news, but I'm seing it in net.general, net.news, and net.jokes. How is anybody supposed to follow a three-ring circus like that? Also, PLEASE restrict your "questionable taste" stuff to net.jokes.q for the time being until this whole thing is settled. I am seeing stuff in net.general about dead babies that certainly offends me (and no, I'm neither dead nor a baby) and probably half the rest of the net. I'm still seeing poor taste jokes in net.jokes. There are people out there that are trying not to get this stuff, and they are being barraged with it anyway! This includes limericks - most of them belong in net.jokes.q. If you would be unwilling to get on your local TV station and recite what you're posting (with your mother and your boss in the audience) you shouldn't be broadcasting it to an equally wide audience of random people. Remember, also, that a record is kept on every machine of everything you say. I haven't been hearing from many people who actually ARE OFFENDED by the net.jokes.q stuff. I'd like to get input from them (either privately by electronic mail or publicly in net.news) in regards to the policy that needs to be formed. How you feel about various proposed solutions is important. Anyone who further understands the Affirmative Action issues should speak up - I don't claim to understand them very well. Mark Horton ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.