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Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!darwin.sura.net!haven.umd.edu!uunet!mcsun!uknet!stl!robobar!ibmpcug!mantis!mathew
From: mathew@mantis.co.uk (mathew)
Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss,comp.org.eff.talk,comp.unix.bsd,comp.os.mach,news.groups
Subject: Re: AT&T Long Distance Boycott (was: BNR2SS, Mach, and The Lawsuit)
Message-ID: <aH6iqB23w165w@mantis.co.uk>
Date: 3 Sep 92 14:44:45 GMT
References: <1992Sep2.171951.22044@gateway.novell.com>
Organization: Mantis Consultants, Cambridge. UK.
Lines: 36

terry@thisbe.Eng.Sandy.Novell.COM (Terry Lambert) writes:
> 	I think we are all aware of the failings of usenet as a political
> organizational tool, or as an organizational tool in general.  People will
> read only the topic categories in which they are interested in, and it is
> this categorization (and the [mostly academic] pressure to keep it) that
> prevents it from being used this way.

To be more precise, people who are in a position to help rarely read the
obvious newsgroups where one might post a plea.

I've found that the most effective way to organize or find something via
Usenet is to stick an advert in your .signature and carry on posting to a
wide range of newsgroups about unrelated matters.

For example, cross-posting to the rec.music groups in search of John Foxx
fans had only limited success.  But sticking a message in my .signature
saying "If you're a fan of John Foxx, please send me mail" got me about one
response a day.  A list of people was put together, letters sent to some
record companies, and now the first three Ultravox! albums are out on CD.

Posting to rec.music saying "I'm looking for the U2 Negativland CD" didn't
even get me a single reply.  But a .signature advert worked, I got about ten
helpful pointers, and a reader of alt.atheism found me a copy.

So if you want to organize a boycott of AT&T for some reason, say why and
mention who to contact for more information.  Express it in four lines or
less, and make it your .signature.  If you can't convince people it might be
important in less than four lines you don't have much hope of convincing
anybody anyway.


mathew
-- 
"Even the most bizarre of the unions (probably that between a cat's gall
 stone and a single note 'G' from CNN's ident theme) managed to convey a
 sense of rampant impropriety."  -- 'Fortran Five', Simon G. Lawrence Leonard