Activism Change

Warning – did you vote for talk.politics.animals?

Question:

    and my vote got there so you should probably try that one. I first tried to send to this address and my email bounced with an "unknown host" message.  So I sent to the address that went Also, I noticed that when messages are set up to post to multiple newsgroups, my newsreader only posts to ONE of the groups.  I found that it was "deleting as read" multiple newsgroup posting. This was by accident because in another newsgroups I thought "but I haven’t read message #… yet" and there was an exact duplicate of the message I read on rec.food.veg.  So…. if other newsreaders are the same, perhaps try posting the announcement and call for votes SEPARATELY to the multiple newsgroups.  This should increase the activity somewhat. Carol A lurking omnivore

Response:

If you have voted for or against the proposed ‘talk.politics.animals’ newsgroup, please check the acknowledgment list to ensure your vote was counted! It seems there was/is a problem in collecting the votes for the newsgroup because 3 people (from 3 different companies in 3 different states) told me they sent email a few weeks ago to vote but their votes did not show up in the acknowledgment list. Also, I noticed the Internet address given in the last posting was and my vote got there so you should probably try that one. I would like to see this newsgroup created because I believe the existence of a dedicated newsgroup (even though it’s a debate group) would give the cause some PR and credibility as a serious ethical issue.   Today, most people don’t even let themselves consider the question of whether we really have the right to use and kill animals they way we do. I think the conference might serve to educate people a bit so that they are somewhat exposed to the idea; today a lot of people on Usenet (in newsgroups other than rec.food.veg) seem completely unfamiliar with the concept and say things like "Animals with *rights*?  Ha ha. That’s a good one.  What are we going to do, let them vote?"   People might start browsing this group to see what it’s all about and become interested in the cause.  In fact, I became a vegetarian after I started reading "rec.food.veg" and learned facts which opened my eyes. Moreover, the newsgroup could also be be used to post items re. activism (e.g. call the Governor re. the Draize bill!) even though that’s not specifically the charter of the newgroup.  Currently, the topic is hardly ever mentioned in other newsgroups except for a couple of recent spurts.  I’ve been disappointed to observe that it is practically never brought up in the activism newsgroups, in spite of the fact that animal agriculture has a huge impact on the environment. It is surprising to me that almost none of the popular computer bulletin boards (that I know of) have conferences dedicated to animal rights, even ones with several environmental and activist conferences.  I would like to see the cause become much more well-known on bulletin boards with forums of its own.  It also discourages me that in the few times I’ve seen animal rights debated on Usenet, it seemed like the responses numbered about 8 to 1 against the idea of animals having any rights.  (I suppose these two problems could be related.  ) To be fair, there are a couple of possible drawbacks to this newsgroup. One potential problem is that this group could become just a "flame war" group like "talk.abortion".  Personally, I might prefer to see a non-debate newsgroup called "misc.activism.animals", but this at least is a start in the right direction.  Also, one might worry this could isolate all animal rights discussion to one newsgroup and it might only be used by those who already have formed their opinions on the subject.  However, I don’t think this has to be the case since the existence of the group would not prevent anyone from posting or cross posting animal rights issues elsewhere.   Currently, whenever the subject comes up in any existing newsgroup, people inevitably complain "This discussion doesn’t belong here". With the new group added, people would have the ability to choose to move the discussion to talk.politics.animals or to continue posting to other newsgroups as they prefer. Due to the general lack of interest (or antagonism in many cases) that this subject evokes on Usenet, I’m worried that there won’t be enough YES votes to create the newsgroup, especially given this voting snafu.   Vote by 1am Nov. 23! Lynn Robinson

Response:

Filed under: Internet activism

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