Threads

J. Moore (j#d#.moore@canrem.com)
Thu, 6 Apr 95 12:26:00 -0500

-> I thought this was going to be a newsgroup where one might read
-> serious postings about paleoanthropology and related topics. I guess
-> I was wrong!
-> John Lundy Anthropology, Clark College, Vancouver jlundy@clark.edu

There are some; the quality of the posting goes up and down.

But seriously, where on the net have you seen an unmoderated forum
dealing with evolution (and especially evolution of hominids) that
contains only "serious postings"? Let me know, but I won't hold my
breath. First, there are juvenile postings to deal with, and there are
a lot of people who aren't being juvenile but who don't read much about
the topic before posting and replying to things as if the field had
never considered them. The only way I could think of to attempt to
eliminate all non-serious posts would be time-consuming and
heavy-handed. Moderation would be a lot of work for someone to take up,
and vetting people on the basis of credentials would make it difficult
for people with self-learned knowledge (and odd hybrids like me) to
contribute.

Stick around -- a little while back it seemed this was a permanent
"aquatic ape" newsgroup. Then a lot of thoughtful (if sometimes less
well-informed than is ideal) posts poured through. At present we've got
a kid who got hold of mommy's computer while she's at work posting, but
he'll go away when his mommy finds out. And lastly, why not initiate
some posts of your own?

Jim Moore (j#d#.moore@canrem.com)