> I was under the impression from the name that this newsgroup
> was about upcoming rainbow gatherings. In the two or so weeks
> I've been scanning it, there seems to be precious little posted
> on that subject.
> Did I misundertand something?
to which the following responded:
On Wed, 22 Oct 1997 Glenn Battin wrote:
> Also, rainbow related topics like how we can help each other, grow in love,
> deal w/medical challenges wholistically, poetry, occasional flames,
> photos of gatherings, recipes, etc. In short such a diversity of things
> that have a common thread of LOVE and Light from every perspective imaginable.
Common thread of "love?" The following are some of the topics
of posts that lead me to make my original post:
1. The Cassini launch
2. Interior bill
3. Martin L. King
4. American Airlines
5. The homeless
6. Star Trek
7. Townhouse available in Palo Alto
Topics 1-5 are political and thus are probably more appropriate
to a political discussion newsgroup; 6 is sci-fi and thus is
probably more appropriate in a sci-fi group; and 7 belongs in a
housing newsgroup or in the ba.* newsgroup hierarchy.
I am a great fan of "everything to its place." I have little to
no interest in any of the above topics.
On 23 Oct 1997 14:47:03 Madelyn Powell wrote:
> all topics are rainbow!
I hope not. If that were the case, then Usenet would consist
of only one newsgroup. Luckily, Usenet consists of thousands
of newsgroups, each to its own topic. I would venture that
topics posted in comp.compilers, ba.transportation, soc.motss,
alt.personals.fetish, and others, are most certainly not
rainbow.
> Just think, it wasn't all that long ago that no-one knew about vegetarianism,
> yoga, recycling, the ozone layer, herbalism, the i ching, or massage or
> chiropractic therapies, muchless reflexology and accupuncture!
Ignoring the gross inaccuracy of that statement (yoga, i ching,
massage, and accupuncture have been known to humankind for
thousands of years) and also ignoring the relegation of all of
Eastern culture, the Chinese in particular, to be under the
umbrella of "no one" (my, what an arrogant, Western-centric
viewpoint!), all of the aforementioned topics have their own
newsgroups.
> So any topic that concerns or enlightens any of us is free game,
By that reasoning, I should be able to discuss developing web
software on Solaris platforms here since, in terms of my job, I
find that enlightening.
> because we also believe in the first amendment
That statement expresses a far-too-common fallacy of thinking.
Discussing topics in the right place is not anti-first
amendment nor is it pro-censorship. Discussing topics in the
right place relies (far too heavily, IMHO) on people to use
common sense to post in the right place. Usenet, for better or
worse, mirrors real discussion groups in the world. Just as
you wouldn't discuss needlepoint on the Senate floor, or racing
cars in a breast-cancer support group, topics not related to
rainbow gatherings should not be discussed here...IMHO.
Otherwise you get a Tower of Babble, poor signal-to-noise
ratio, (pick your favorite analogy).
> If this were just an event calendar, it would be dull, dull, dull...
Granted. But I never said it should be. I'm merely saying
that topics with a heavy political slant, science fiction, and
available housing aren't on-topic.
Discussing *where* events should take place is on-topic. (I
assume that somebody simply doesn't pull a date and location
out of a hat and that it's discussed first.) Reports of past
gatherings are on-topic. Advice for new-comers (e.g., what
should one *bring* and *not* bring to a gathering) is on-topic.
An FAQ is on-topic. Describing what generally goes on at
gatherings is on-topic. Suggestions of other events (hikes,
trips, sight-seeing tours) for rainbow-minded folk is on-topic.
I could go on.
On 22 Oct 1997 Karl-Heinz Jackson wrote:
> Uh...were you looking for a rainbow newsgroup or a date listing? If the
> latter, check out http://www.welcomehome.org (that's where you'll find info
> over rainbow events as well as lots of other useful links and info).
Thanks for the info (although the site was down as of 9:00 PDT).
> PS- that's a REAL unfriendly email adress: "Nobody Write, Nobody
> Welcome, I Ain't Here!" ;-)
It should (?) be obvious that the e-mail address is intended
for spammers. Those who REALLY want to contact me by e-mail,
as opposed to posting a follow-up, have merely to use their
favorite web search engine. I'm not difficult to find.
- Paul