From: psandje@i-cable.com   
      
   "R&O&**8ISALAAM***ALOOKAM"  wrote in message   
   news:2hr84oFfoookU1@uni-berlin.de...   
   >   
   >   I never wanted to see Martha Bridegam leave this newsgroup or anyone   
   else.   
   > I would like to see the old abg-o back and talking, it was a good place to   
   > learn things. But I can only reiterate that the precious, pompous and   
   prissy   
   > characteristics of the doctrinaire leftwing Orwell fans here sunk the   
   > newsie. Selene and Bayle gave the other side of the coin and, as all   
   lefties   
   > do when challenged, they have shouted down and ignored as lunatics when   
   what   
   > they were saying was as valid as what the holy lefties were saying; I   
   don't   
   > see it as being spite and hatred. I'm sure we've all said completely out   
   of   
   > order things on here; again, I've been the worst in my time. I think   
   people   
   > should come back here and not hide out in the walled pleasantness of a   
   > moderated group blog.   
      
   I certainly agree with you about Martha's prissiness and her sense of   
   self-righteousness.  I think it's been a major factor in what has happened   
   here - below for your amusement I shall repost a thread from Alan Allport's   
   blog that shows Martha at her humourless worst.  But I don't think the road   
   taken by Bayle and Selene has helped and if thats the cure for Martha then I   
   prefer the disease. As for your own putting the boot in I think you have   
   always done it selectively and have shown far greater toleration for   
   diversity than Martha, Selene, or Bayle.   
      
   Paul Stables   
      
   And now for your amusement a thread from Alan Allport's Horizon:   
      
   Headcase   
   Was I the only one who thought the wave of mea culpas about Sunday's   
   Doonesbury strip needed more explanation than the original offense?   
      
   It took me a little while to work out what was so allegedly awful about the   
   strip's last panel. Perhaps it's because I lack Mr. Trudeau's hair shirt (or   
   that of his syndicators' lawyers), but I'm still puzzled as to why a   
   completely off-topic allusion to a commonplace metaphor should have aroused   
   such passion. Assuming that it did, of course: what's notably absent in the   
   news stories covering this blooper is evidence that anyone was actually   
   offended. Perhaps it's time for a bipartisan moratorium on vaguely defined   
   public outrages (and yes, that means you too, MB).   
      
   Posted by Alan Allport at 06:45 AM | Comments (5)   
      
      
   Comments: Headcase   
   I couldn't figure it out till I read the article. Maybe I'm just horribly   
   cynical, but I think that people get a certain entertainment out of those   
   teapot-tempest scandals.   
      
   I imagine down at abgo about now they're saying that Trudeau has blood on   
   his hands, or something similarly hyperbolic. I just don't think people   
   would waste their time if they weren't enjoying themselves somehow....   
      
   Posted by Alan Hogue at May 24, 2004 09:48 AM   
   Shhh ... you mean the Scottish Newsgroup.   
      
   Posted by Alan Allport at May 24, 2004 10:05 AM   
   LOL 'the Scottish Newsgroup'   
      
   But all you pilgrims that set sail from ABGO to found a new society safe   
   from the manifestations of Bayle, Selene, and Moyehoist should really think   
   again. This gated community you have created certainly has a more refined   
   atmosphere but like any Utopia it misses the essence of life - the   
   diversity, the annoyance, the aggravation and so many other things that   
   allow us occasionally to experience the pleasure and joy of a great debate.   
      
   Why not all come back? Plan your return like a military campaign. Gather a   
   library of killer posts and then despatch them one by one; methodically   
   interacting with each other until the newsgroup is swamped with quality   
   discussion and the enemy is defeated. We must all have a very strict rule   
   that under no circumstances should anyone, no matter what the provocation,   
   respond to a posting by Bayle, Selene, or Moyehoist. Isolate them in their   
   hatred, let them stew in their own excrement, and drown in their own rage   
   and let Orwell's people triumph!   
      
   OK I went a bit OTT but how about it?   
      
   Paul Stables   
      
   Posted by Paul Stables at May 27, 2004 04:10 PM   
   I'll pass, Paul. But feel free to drop by here any time.   
      
   Posted by Alan Allport at May 27, 2004 06:33 PM   
   Setting aside the "military campaign" and "Orwell's People" hyperbole (which   
   I do understand was meant jokingly here), I've thought it through and   
   arrived at conclusions similar to Paul's about how a group of former   
   regulars could resume having conversations about George Orwell on the Orwell   
   Usenet newsgroup.   
      
   Some of this may aid further thought on the question, though to describe the   
   problem at alt.books.george-orwell as "trolling" does underestimate the   
   motives and intelligence of the people involved.   
      
   I haven't made up my own mind about whether to go back to Usenet but   
   obviously anyone who wants to write to me is welcome to do so.   
      
      
   Posted by Martha Bridegam at May 27, 2004 08:16 PM   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)