I Post To Usenet, And It Saves *My* Life
Jeff Rubard
Jeff Rubard) and I want to tell you about one of the least deadly
killers in the country today, netnews. You may say "Jeff, thank you,
but I already know about netnews" and this may be true. But do you know
everything about it, including how using makes your life in particular
better? Didn't think so. So in this little piece I'll take some time
to explain the interface between netnews and society at large. Netnews
("Usenet", although many hierarchies such as this one are not part of
Usenet proper) was not the first Internet application, and it is not the
most popular (not sure what that is these days). But the decentralized
character of news and archiving give it a special character with
ramifications beyond any irritation factor.
Most everyone understands the mechanism by which netnews moves: it is
equivalent to the chain letter. The message originates with your news
server, and is sent to x (hundred) other news servers, who send it to,
etc. Is posting to newsgroups going to bring you good luck? It
probably is, and that's honestly not the kind of thing I would make
up; but understanding this takes some work. Firstly, the World Wide
Web, which promises all kinds of things to all kinds of people
(including good people), is not really as "wide-open" as you might
think. Although in principle any fool with an Angelfire account could
reach thousands of people worldwide, and any fool with $100 burning a
hole in his pocket could buy time on a webserver and create a media
empire, it doesn't work like that. Firstly, people have their
proclivities, and secondly the search engines are calibrated not to
keywords alone but also to the amount of lucre you place in their hands,
literally or figuratively (that is, by buying ads or seeming likely to).
All of this is widely known, and in truth none too disturbing in itself:
you get what you pay for, and that sum could be as little as the effort
required to click a mouse a couple times. But, because of a lack of
"white pages" listings for websites (and the Open Directory Project
doesn't really qualify, although it's not a bad thing), the world wide
web isn't a common carrier: that is, it's not a friction-free market for
ideas. If I want to tell someone across the world a "dirty joke" about
Martin Heidegger, James Brown and Daniel Paul Schreber -- as indeed I
do, to no one in particular -- that timely piece of advice might not get
to a person who would want to hear it if I put it on my website. The
Web is for big boys and "close friends" (your boys), and you might have
something that you wanted to say and that other people wanted to hear
which wouldn't appeal to either audience. (Imagine that.)
Then again, you might not, as Sanford Wallace has highlighted for us
all. But original content posted to a newsgroup, even if it's unwanted,
isn't "spam". Spam has its uses as an ingredient, but more importantly
it is canned. And "original" here means that you wrote it to some
point, not that you wrote it specially for the newsgroup or one
occasion: if a FAQ list is new to you, it's doing what it's supposed to
do. So you shouldn't jump to conclusions about what is genuinely
"spam" and what is not. But the beauty part is that on Usenet you don't
have to because you can be as ornery as you want and still be relatively
non-disruptive (when people start messing up newsgroups, that's
something else), because the break-even point (someone reading the
post and finding it interesting) is so low, considering that more
copies of a post are distributed worldwide than any one person could
read in a lifetime.
Does this seem wasteful? It's what's Usenet's for, but the secret
is Usenetters didn't invent this; that's what the "public sphere" is
for. If you're not breaking any laws, there even be some point to being
really weird in a way which temporarily discomfits people; in fact,
ultimately an economic point about your competencies (and views) as a
person. It's nothing at all for someone to relay a damaging piece of
"information" about you, but if it goes against something you have on
record it's decidedly less powerful; and it's nothing at all for someone
to discount your abilities in some area (imagine that), but if your
skill set is known to as wide an audience as possible it's shall we say
more difficult.
Now, you might say "Well, do you think people I know or want to know
read netnews a lot?" Well, I didn't read it at all for years and you
can take that as you will (it was not a happy time in my life). But
archived posts of mine from the wayback are still available on Google
groups sketching my pubescent views of various topics, and this shows
that something good you make available on Usenet will continue to speak
in your favor for a long time. Something bad or unimpressive, too; but
what it will say is something about your limitations as a person, and
the secret is that this also makes your life easier. If a genuine
account of some weird-ass part of your personality (and it doesn't have
to be a shocking part, hint, hint) is available, I guarantee you (and I
speak as a trained sociologist ;) that your interactional patterns will
change in a way you'll appreciate -- if not too much.
The trick is posting under your own name, not a pseudonym, and from an
emailable account such that comments can be "authenticated" (a
give-and-take process -- and by the way, as almost reg'lar netnews user
knows you can put some jive in the indicated address to block some
spam). What you are doing by posting on Usenet is making a composite
"representamen" or meaningful image of yourself available; words that
can be taken for the deed. Although some elements of the self don't
change readily "self-representation" is a dynamic, creative process;
and posting to Usenet is a constructive activity such as can facilitate
creation of an accurate picture in the minds of others, even if you're
trolling rather than offering your genuine take on things. (Which I
don't endorse, although it may not be dangerous for you -- the trolling,
that is). So if you're having a little bit of trouble in your life, go
ahead and try it -- don't expect much, expect (ahem) "lowered expectations".
(Note: This works for anyone who can get a free Web account at an
American library, thanks to the ever-helpful Google Groups but also free
Web news servers abroad; but it will not work if you live in the Third
World and don't have access to a telephone line, or deal a lot with
people who live as though they did. Projects involving such people,
including but not limited to understanding the world, are thereby
somewhat compromised. But what else is new?)
Jeff Rubard
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Idiotic scene posturing aside, the Frumpies play some goshdarn *rock and
roll* on this 4-song EP. Produced by Donna Dresch in what sounds like a
giant garbage can, this band's stripped-down punk sound comes across
clear as a bell. I really wish they would cut the scene references out,
though; why don't they write letters to the people "Deliberate
Indifference" and "Fuck Yr. Frumpies" are about, and write real songs
for the rest of us?
review of *Tommy Slich* EP, *Paperback Jukebox* magazine, 1995
