Gregory Petrolati says:
> Hullo,
> I'm in the process of writing an article for VICTORY
> LANE MAGAZINE about E-mail car groups. Since I want to cover
> as much about the service as possible, I need your views about
> what you like/dislike about "British-cars". The article will
> feature our news group in particular. I also want to know how
> you learned about the group and if you are subscribed to any
> other related newsgroup i.e. Italian cars, etc.
>
> Thanks in advance for your cooperation
> Gregory Petrolati
Well first of all, if you are going to describe this media format, use the
correct designation. This is a mailing list of electronic addresses. There
is a list server on autox.team.net (aka cs.utah.edu) that keeps track of the
350+ different folks that want to get mail daily regarding various old bits
of british metal. There is control over who receives this information, and
it has to be requested personally by the end recipient. This format has the
tendency to feel like a group of friends all sitting around an enormous table
chatting about the trials and tribulations of having old quirky cars. There
are other lists for other types of vehicles and interest groups as well.
Many of these are not auto related.
A newsgroup is a different beast completly. A new group is composed of files
that are created by individual users then sent to a common site which
propogates the files (seen as articles by the newsreader software) to other
sites further down the information swamp (heard that recently, I like it).
There is no control over who doesn't get the information, everything is
passed on, it is up to the individual user to make the effort to seek out and
read a certian subject, and some subjects are not received by all sites.
Actually this is a good thing, as the 5750+ newsgroups takes up over 75
megabytes of diskspace a day, it might even be over 100 theses days. Since
there is little control over what goes out or is passed on the signal to
noise ratio in many cases is not very good.
That being said, I like the Britcar list very much. I have made some very
good and close friends through this media (both directly and indirectly) some
of whom I still keep in close contact via telephone even though I have moved
and they have moved a number of times. I'm on other lists as well, autox,
porsche, miata, wheeltowheel (though I seem to have dropped off that one
inrecent months...).
The downside to all electronic forms of media is relevant to both the mail
lists and the newsgroups (though it is worse in the newsgroups). This is the
interesting feature that you can not be interupted or corrected and possibly
interpreted wrong. People tend to forget that they are sending off a
scathing note that they would never say to someone in person, but because of
the faceless anonimity, combined with the fact that nobody is wacking them
across the back of the head saying, "shaddup you nitwit, you're gonna get
pulverized." There is a chance to have flame wars escallate to levels that
would be unheard of in a cocktail party. (I point to the nearly humorus
Harry Pellow - Peter Albrecht 356 debates recently "witnessed" on the
porschephiles)
I hope your article is informative, but not too informative. This swamp is
getting a lot of unpleasant gasses lately.......
--
Miq Millman mmillman@ptdcs2.intel.com 503 642 6139 (Aloha site)
AL4-55 Intel, 5200 NE Elam Young Parkway, Hillsboro, OR 97124-6497
See also miq@teleport.com
|