XPost: alt.religion.christian.east-orthodox, alt.books.beatgeneration,   
   alt.usage.english   
   XPost: soc.culture.south-africa, rec.arts.books, misc.education   
   XPost: sci.anthropology   
   From: cam@holyrood.ed.ac.uk   
      
   Zaph'enath  writes:   
      
   >Chris Malcolm wrote:   
   >> Ferdi Greyling  writes:   
      
   >>>On Tue, 14 Oct 2003 11:55:43 +0000 (UTC), cam@holyrood.ed.ac.uk (Chris   
   >>>Malcolm) wrote:   
      
   >>>>My university, recognising the serious threat to their mental   
   >>>>stability, not to mention the quality of their degree, forbids   
   >>>>students newsgroup write access. I'm surprised this simple remedy to a   
   >>>>serious modern social problem is not more widely adopted.>>   
      
   >>>Are you saying you reckon it is good for people to be told to shut   
   >>>up?!   
      
   >> I apologise for the ambiguity. The students are not told to shut   
   >> up. That wouldn't solve the problem. In fact it might make it worse.   
   >> They are simply not supplied with write access to newsgroups. Problem   
   >> solved to the benefit of all.   
      
   >I do not think this solves the problem at all.  Not even by your   
   >definition of the problem (to which I do not subscribe).  Google Groups,   
   >for instance, provides write access to usenet for anyone with an   
   >internet connection.  So, nobody is actually hindered from posting   
   >simply because their university's news server does not allow them write   
   >access.   
      
   >And it does not solve the problem in   
   >alt.religion.christian.east-orthodox, in which two contributors who are   
   >both over the 50-year mark contribute at least 85% of the off-topic   
   >materials.  The fact that they are each other's devils only makes it   
   >worse.   
      
   >I can not speak for the "degeneration" in the other groups in this   
   >x-posted thread; but college students are not the worst of the problem   
   >in a.r.c.e-o.   
      
   I wasn't speaking of the degeneration of newsgroups. I was speaking of   
   the deterioration in the mental health of certain kinds of people when   
   allowed write access to newsgroups. It sounds to me as though your two   
   middle-aged christian contributors could be examples of this.   
   --   
   Chris Malcolm cam@infirmatics.ed.ac.uk +44 (0)131 651 3445 DoD #205   
   IPAB,  Informatics,  JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK   
   [http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)