🚀 go-pugleaf

I've spent the past week perusing the various groups of network
news, and I was quite surprised to find one named "net.suicide".
After scanning the articles, I'm not quite sure what the nature
of this group is.  My initial two guesses are:

1 -- An underground forum for dealing with a phenomenon which has
     touched some people's lives.
2 -- A group assigned the name "net.suicide", and attracting people
     who, although they can't face serious discussions on the
     subject, are nevertheless drawn subconsciously  by the
     word "suicide".

My own inclination is to select (2) above.  There are strong traits
in the messages I have seen which crop up in cases of suicide --
the ammount of hostility in the messages, the great interest in
personal (by computer?) communication, the assertion that a strong
element of black humor is present, etc.  Nevertheless, I am
somewhat confused by what appears to me to be an indirect or
facious approach.  Is this all a joke?  A question:

A)  How many of the readers have actually attempted suicide
    (required treatment by medical professionals)?

b)  How many of the readers have witnessed a suicide by
    someone close to them (lover, friend, parent, sibling)?

...decvax!microsoft!uw-beaver!vestal
VESTAL@WASHINGTON